ing and churning and not
without excessive trepidation on the part of the captain and his lone
deck hand, stopped at many frail docks below the cottages that hung on
the bluff above. Every cottager maintained his own light or combination
of lights to facilitate identification by approaching visitors. They
passed a number of sailboats lazily idling in the light wind, and
several small power boats shot past with engines beating furiously upon
the still waters.

"The Bassetts' dock is the green light; the red, white, and blue is Mrs.
Owen's," explained the captain. "We ain't stoppin' at Bassett's
to-night."

These lights marked the farthest bounds of Lake Waupegan, and were the
last points touched by the boat. Sylvia watched the green light with
interest as they passed. She had thought of Marian often since their
meeting at Mrs. Owen's. She would doubtless see more of her now: the
green light and the red, white and blue were very close together.

Mrs. Owen called to them cheerily from the dock, and waved a lantern in
welcome. She began talking to her guests before they disembarked.

"Glad to see you, Andrew. You must be mighty hungry, Sylvia. Don't smash
my dock to pieces, Captain; it's only wood."

Mrs. Owen complained after a few days that she saw nothing of Sylvia, so
numerous were that young person's engagements. Mrs. Bassett and Marian
called promptly--the former a trifle dazed by Sylvia's sudden advent,
and Marian genuinely cordial. Mrs. Bassett had heard of the approaching
visit with liveliest interest. A year before, when Marian had reported
the presence in Mrs. Owen's house at Indianapolis of a strange girl with
Professor Kelton, her curiosity had been piqued, but she soon dismissed
the matter. Marian had carried home little information, and while Mrs.
Bassett saw her aunt often on her frequent excursions to the city, she
knew by long experience that Mrs. Owen did not yield gracefully to
prodding.

Mrs. Bassett had heard all her life of Professor Kelton and she had met
him now and then in the Delaware Street house, but her knowledge of him
and his family was only the most fragmentary. Nothing had occurred
during the year to bring the Keltons again to her attention; but now,
with a casualness in itself disconcerting, they had arrived at Mrs.
Owen's farmhouse, where, Mrs. Bassett was sure, no guests had ever been
entertained before. The house had just been remodeled and made
altogether habitable, a fact which