me to. It looks to us all,
of course, as if she were Miss Upton's friend and not yours."

Mrs. Barry's cheeks flamed. This dreadful youngster was forcing her,
hurrying her, and she would be spokesman to the village. Ben's
infatuation left her no choice.

"Oh, quite in ours, quite, I judge," she said graciously. "Ben thinks
her quite exceptional."

The girlish voice laughed again: not so gleefully as Mrs. Barry could
have wished. She hoped they were not sister-sufferers!

"I should judge so, from what Mrs. Whipp has told people. Well, I will
be patient, Mrs. Barry. We want to show all courtesy to Ben's friend
when the right time comes. Good-bye."

"Good-bye," replied Mrs. Barry, and hung up the receiver.

She sat a few minutes more without moving, deep in thought.

"I have no choice," she said to herself at last. "I have no choice."

The next day she moved about restlessly amid her accustomed occupations
and by evening had come to a conclusion and made a plan which on the
following afternoon she carried out.

After an early luncheon she set forth in her motor for Keefeport. Miss
Upton's little establishment was in nice order by this time and the sign
had been hung up over the door: "The Mermaid Shop." By the time Mrs.
Barry's car stopped before it, the three residents had eaten their
dinner and the dishes were set away.

"There's so few folks here yet, there's hardly anything to do in the
store," said Miss Mehitable to Geraldine. "Now's the time for you to go
out and walk around and see the handsome cottages and the grand rocky
shore. This wharf ain't anything to see."

"Do you think Pearl would like to go to walk?" said the girl, picking up
the handsome cat, while Charlotte looked on approvingly.

"Pearl does hate this movin' business," she said. "It'll be weeks before
she'll find a spot in the house where she can really settle down."

Geraldine was burying her face in the soft fur when the motor flashed up
to the grassy path before the shop, and stopped.

"For the land's sake!" said Miss Mehitable. "It's the Barry car." She
hurried forward, and Geraldine, still holding the cat against her cheek,
saw the chauffeur open the door and Mrs. Barry emerge.

Ben's assurance flashed into her thought. "Whatever she may do
hereafter, remember it is of her own volition."

The lady came in, and, smiling a return to Miss Mehitable's welcome,
looked at the girl in the blue dress. She liked the self-possessed
manner