ng to the full the refreshment of the shadow
and the breeze, and the perfection both of the view and of her immediate
surroundings. Bell Masters sat near her, having discovered that she was
generally surest of Mr. De Forest's company when in Gerald's
neighborhood. Nor had she been mistaken this time. He had openly
abandoned the greedy band of berry-pickers, and the artistic knot of
sketchers, and the noisy body of pleasure-seekers, who were paddling
frivolously around the shores of the lake and screaming with causeless
laughter, as soon as he found that Gerald did not intend attaching
herself to any of them but had struck out the new and independent line of
doing absolutely nothing at all. Halloway had been helping industriously
with the fire, but he came toward the group under the trees when his
services seemed no longer required.

"You look most invitingly comfortable," he said, fanning himself with his
hat. "We must try to coax Miss Phebe here for a rest."

"Pray don't," said De Forest, lifting a lazy hand with an air of finding
even that motion too great an effort. "At least not till the coffee is
well under way. I tasted a cup of her make yesterday. Don't call her off.
We are all benefiting in a manner by her absence."

"I can make good coffee too, when I choose," said Bell, biting at the
rim of her straw hat.

De Forest contemplated her with new interest. "Ah, can you. 'Tis a gift
of the gods given to few. And when do you choose, may I ask? Apparently
not to-day."

"'Tisn't my picnic."

"Oh! Is it Miss Lane's?"

"One would say it was, from the way she slaves for it," remarked Gerald.

"Why don't you help too?" asked De Forest, breaking off blades of grass
and flinging them out singly upon the air.

"For Miss Masters' excellent reason: it is not my picnic."

"You contribute your valuable aid solely to your own undertakings then?"

"Why am I called upon to contribute it to any other?"

"'Tis a problem for philosophers. But for argument's sake, let us say for
the good of humanity at large, and of the Dexters in particular."

"I am not bound to the Dexters by any obligation that I can see to help
them carry out their entertainment. If they are not equal to it, they
should not give it."

"Nothing Quixotic about you, is there?" said De Forest, looking at her
quizzically.

"Nothing whatever," replied Gerald, easily. "Why should there be? Let
every one look out for himself."

"And if some can't?"

"T