bench, and Margery was engaged in conversation with the girl with the
plait down her back.

"When I finish my cigar," thought Mr. Archibald, "I will go myself and
take a stroll." And it struck him that he might talk to the old gentleman,
who was still walking up and down in front of the hotel. After
contemplating the tops of some forest trees against the greenish-yellow of
the middle sky, he turned his eyes again towards his wife, and found that
the two elderly ladies had made room for her on the bench, that the
tennis-game had ceased, and that one of the girls in blue flannel had
joined this group and was talking to Margery.

In a few moments all the ladies on the bench rose, and Mrs. Archibald and
one of them walked slowly towards an opening in the woods. The other lady
followed with the little girl, and Margery and the young woman in blue
walked in the same direction, but not in company with the rest of the
party. The two young men, with the other tennis-player between them,
walked over from the tennis-court and joined the first group, and they all
stopped just as they reached the woods. There they stood and began talking
to each other, after which one of the young men and the young woman
approached a large tree, and he poked with a stick into what was probably
a hole near its roots, and Mr. Archibald supposed that the discussion
concerned a snake-hole or a hornets' nest. Then Margery and the other
young woman came up, and they looked at the hole. Now the whole company
walked into the woods and disappeared. In about ten minutes Mr. Archibald
finished his cigar and was thinking of following his wife and Margery,
when the two elderly ladies and Mrs. Archibald came out into the open and
walked towards the hotel. Then came the little girl, running very fast as
she passed the tree with the hole near its roots. In a few minutes Mrs.
Archibald stopped and looked back towards the woods; then she walked a
little way in that direction, leaving her companions to go to the hotel.
Now the young man in the bicycle suit emerged from the woods, with a girl
in dark-blue flannel on each side of him.

"Upon my word!" exclaimed Mr. Archibald, and rising to his feet, advanced
towards his wife; but before he reached her, Margery emerged from the wood
road, escorted by the young man in the summer suit.

"Upon my word," Mr. Archibald remarked, this time to his wife, "that ward
of ours is not given to wasting time."

"It seems so, truly,