posed a boating expedition to the lower end of the lake. His
boat was large enough for Matlack, the three ladies, and himself, and if
the two young men wished to follow, they had a boat of their own.

When first asked to join the boating party Miss Corona Raybold hesitated;
she did not care very much about boating; but when she found that if she
stayed in camp she would have no one to talk to, she accepted the
invitation.

Mr. Archibald took the oars nearest the stern, while Matlack seated
himself forward, and this arrangement suited Miss Corona exactly.

The boat kept down the middle of the lake, greatly aided by the current,
and Corona talked steadily to Mr. Archibald. Mrs. Archibald, who always
wanted to do what was right, and who did not like to be left out of any
conversation on important subjects, made now and then a remark, and
whenever she spoke Corona turned to her and listened with the kindest
attention, but the moment the elder lady had finished, the other resumed
her own thread of observation without the slightest allusion to what she
had just heard.

As for Mr. Archibald, he seldom said a word. He listened, sometimes his
eyes twinkled, and he pulled easily and steadily. Doubtless he had a good
many ideas, but none of them was expressed. As for Margery, she leaned
back in the stern, and thought that, after all, she liked Miss Raybold
better than she did her brother, for the young lady did not speak one word
to her, nor did she appear to regard her in any way.

"But how on earth," thought Margery, "she can float over this beautiful
water and under this lovely sky, with the grandeur of the forest all about
her, and yet pay not the slightest attention to anything she sees, but
keep steadily talking about her own affairs and the society she belongs
to, I cannot imagine. She might as well live in a cellar and have
pamphlets and reformers shoved down to her through the coal-hole."

Messrs. Clyde and Raybold accompanied the larger boat in their own skiff.
It was an unwieldy craft, with but one pair of oars, and as the two young
men were not accustomed to rowing together, and as Mr. Raybold was not
accustomed to rowing at all and did not like it, Mr. Clyde pulled the
boat. But, do what he could, it was impossible for him to get near the
other boat. Matlack, who was not obliged to listen to Miss Corona, kept
his eye upon the following skiff, and seemed to fear a collision if the
two boats came close together, fo