Please don't stay in this hot place. Take off your hat and
find a cool corner somewhere in the house. I'll be in presently."

"I mustn't bother you. I was going to stay for lunch with you, it was so
hot in town, but I mustn't think of it when you're so----"

"Of course you'll stay," said Juliet with decision. "What you see before
you is only the smoke of battle. It will soon clear away. Run off--and
I'll be with you presently. You'll find the late magazines in the
living-room."

Her tone was intended to deceive and it was sufficiently successful.
Judith was anxious to stay. She was also interested in the situation. She
had heard much from Wayne in praise of Juliet's successful housekeeping,
and had seen enough of it herself to be curious about its inner workings.
For the first time she had happened upon a scene which would seem to
indicate that there were phases in this sort of domestic life less ideal
than she was asked to believe. She went back into the coolness and quiet
of the living-room with a full appreciation of the fact that no hot
kitchens ever threatened her own peace of mind.

Juliet finished her strawberry preserve, saw that everything liable to
burn was removed to safe quarters; then deliberately took off her apron
and stole out of the kitchen door. She went swiftly down through the
orchard to the willow-bordered path by the brook; then, out of sight of
everything human, ran several rods down it with a sweep of skirts which
put everything in the bird creation to flight. At a certain pleasant spot
among the willows, sheltered from all possible observation, she paused and
flung herself down upon the warm ground.

But not in any attitude of despair. Neither did she cry tears of vexation
and weariness. She was a healthy girl, with the perfect physical being
whose poise is not upset by so small a matter as a fatiguing morning.
Because a cake had burned, an extra amount of work had had to be conquered
and an unexpected guest had arrived, her nerves were not worn to the
rending point. But, having been reared in the belief that a breath of
outdoors is the great antidote for all physical or mental discomforts born
of confinement indoors, she had acquired a habit of running away from her
cares at any and all times of day in precisely this fashion--and many were
the advantages she had reaped from this somewhat unusual course of
procedure.

Mrs. Anthony Robeson lay upon one side, her arm outstretched, her cheek