e place. He takes some things for granted and lets other things
drift. If we had a good, live president, our superintendent would
get her walking ticket instanter."

"A little strange he doesn't marry again. His wife has been gone
for some years, hasn't she?"

"Five last June. They say he is devoted to her memory. I don't
take much stock in such devotedness--so far as men are concerned.
When he finds some pink and white doll that is sufficiently
captivating he will go through with another wedding ceremony."

"That makes me think of a Danish couple I met in Florence," began
Mrs. Winslow Teed; "she couldn't have been over nineteen or twenty,
and he was eighty at least. She--"

Miss Sterling was again absorbed in her own thoughts and never
heard what became of the poorly-mated travelers.

Doodles and Blue ran down from the veranda as the cars speeded up
the slope to the little bungalow, and they were quickly in the
midst of a joyous circle.

Polly and David, alighting from the third car, ran back to help
Miss Sterling and the others.

"Oh, Miss Nita! Wasn't the ride lovely?" Polly squeezed her
friend's arm. "Say, did you know, at the very last minute Miss
Sniffen sent over word that Mrs. Bonnyman couldn't go? She had the
toothache, and so mother came in her place! Oh, I did wish you
were in our car! I wanted to say, 'Isn't that beautiful?' and
'Just look at this!'"

"You could talk to David," laughed Miss Sterling.

"Oh, yes, I did some! But Mrs. Crump was jabbering to him most of
the time. Haven't you ever been out here before? Why, I thought
you had!--How d' y' do, Doodles!"

The three went up the steps hand in hand.

"Isn't that the loveliest, biggest moon you ever saw?" exclaimed
Polly.

While they lingered to look at it a car flashed up the road and
turned in at the entrance.

"Somebody going to the Flemings'," remarked Doodles carelessly.

"No, it's coming here!" returned Polly. The lights blazed toward
them.

They waited, and a man stepped out.

"Mr. Randolph!" breathed Polly, as he emerged from the shadows.

"I feel somewhat like an intruder," said the president, as he
grasped the hand of Doodles. "When Colonel Gresham invited me I
told him my coming was impossible. Then things cleared up a
little--and here I am!"

A visible stir succeeded Nelson Randolph's entrance. Mrs. Stickney
and Colonel Gresham welcomed him most cordially, and Polly, as
president of the Hiking Club,