with any more."

"Oh, lobster here isn't the same as anywhere else. You can eat it right
out of this sea as you can ripe apples out of an orchard."

"Indeed? The more the merrier, instead of the sadder?"

"Certainly," replied Edna with conviction, and the judge allowed his
plate to be replenished. "You shall go out after supper to see my
alterations," went on Edna. "Willis is going to let the other man come
to-morrrow to finish up, for he told me he 'couldn't put off no longer
goin' to Portland to have a tooth hauled.'"

The girl continued to keep the conversation in safe channels until the
trying hour was over, then, asking Miss Martha to take the men around
the house to exhibit her improvements, she ran upstairs again to
Sylvia's room. Shutting herself in, she stood considering in what form
she should put the news to those below. The gulf between herself and
her guest still yawned; and, while she regretted to have hurt her, she
felt that her words had not been unwarranted.

It was hard to forgive Sylvia for being so different from any girl of
her own world, and yet to have strongly attracted so fastidious a man
as John Dunham.

Edna caught herself up sharply. Was it possible that the least shadow
of jealousy had influenced her treatment of Sylvia? She was given to
uncompromising self-examination, and she knew that it had been a
surprise to her to discover in the past days that she was not John's
chief interest. She accused herself now of a snobbish inclination
toward Sylvia, entirely aside from the perplexity and disapproval the
girl had caused her. Edna knew herself to be accustomed to a pedestal.
She feared that she had come to taking it for granted that even among
her peers she should be preeminent, and that, as for this Western
protegee whom she had patronized for Thinkright's sake, it had been a
surprise to find her considered, socially speaking.

Edna set aside the tangled web of unsatisfactory thought, to be
straightened and corrected at a more convenient season. Miss Martha
might come upstairs at any moment. She must decide what to say to them
all.

She wondered if Sylvia had fled too hastily to take her few belongings.
She crossed the room to the closet, and opened the door. It was empty,
but on the floor lay the pillow slip which Sylvia had defended from
John so heatedly. Edna looked at the white bag with some repugnance.
There recurred to her the appealing look in the girl's eyes as she had
hurri