way of
it was this: as they came up from breakfast and stood at the tent-door
discussing the question whether they would go to the early meeting, Mrs.
Duane Smithe passed, glanced up at them carelessly, then looked back
curiously, and at last turned and came back to them.

"I beg pardon," she said, "but isn't this Miss Erskine? It surely is! I
thought I recognized your face, but couldn't be sure in these strange
surroundings. And you have a party with you? How delightful! We were
just wishing for more ladies. I really don't think it is going to rain
much to-day, and we have a lovely prospect in view. You must certainly
join us."

Then followed introductions and explanations, Mrs. Duane Smithe was a
Saratoga acquaintance of Ruth Erskine, and was _en route_ for Jamestown
for the day.

"Where is Jamestown?" queried Eurie, who was a very useful member of
society, in that she never pretended knowledge that she did not possess,
so that you had only to keep still and listen to the answers that were
made to her questions in order to know a good deal.

"It is at the head of this lovely little lake, or at the foot, I'm sure
I don't know which way to call it, and it is nothing of consequence, of
course, but the ride thither is said to be charming, and we are going to
take a lunch, and picnic in a private way, just for the fun of getting
together, you know, in a more social manner than one can accomplish in
this wilderness of people. Isn't it a queer place, Miss Erskine? I am
dying to know how you happened to come here."

Ruth arched her eyebrows.

"I confess it is almost as strange as what brought _you_ here," she
said, smiling.

"I can answer that in an instant. I have a ridiculous nephew here, who
thought that a week of meetings from morning to night would be just a
trifle short of paradise, so what did he do but smuggle us all off this
way. I shall find it a bore, of course, and the only way to get through
with it is to have little pleasure excursions like the one we propose
to-day."

Now you know as much about Mrs. Duane Smithe as though I should write
about her for a week. It is strange how little we have to say before we
have explained to people not only our intellectual but our moral status.
Our girls, you will remember, had as little regard for the meetings as
girls could have, and they had by this time begun to feel themselves in
a strange atmosphere, without acquaintances or gentlemanly attentions,
so it took