your breakfast upstairs this morning?" she asked. "I thought Mrs. Gray
might like to have it in her room."

"Thank you, but I'd rather go downstairs this morning," nodded the
energetic old lady. "May we breakfast a la negligee?"

"Yes, come down just as you are. There is no one here besides myself and
the maid."

"Miss Briggs, have you had your breakfast? Jane is making waffles. I
thought you--"

"Waffles!" exclaimed Elfreda, rolling her eyes in ecstacy. "If I'd had
fifty breakfasts I couldn't resist waffles. Thank goodness Vinton's
wasn't open."

"Aren't waffles supposed to be fattening?" inquired Grace judiciously.

"Don't ask me," was Elfreda's fervent protest. "I've set my mind on
eating them, even though I have to walk to Hunter's Rock and back in the
glare of the noonday sun to counteract their deadly effects."

It was a merry trio that gathered around the table which Mrs. Elwood had
set on the roomy, vine-covered back porch, and it was fully an hour
after they sat down to breakfast before they rose to go upstairs and
make ready for their visit to Harlowe House.

"There is no use in trying to begin our real work to-day," declared
Grace, as the three left Mrs. Elwood's and strolled slowly along College
Street in the direction of the caretaker's house. Mr. Symes, who had
faithfully executed so many commissions for Grace, had been selected as
the best possible person to look after the house. "Mr. Symes was to see
that everything was unpacked before we arrived. We shall have to employ
two men to move the heavy furniture. Thank goodness and Mrs. Gray, there
are no carpets to be laid. The floors are all hard wood and there are
rugs for every room except the kitchen and laundry."

"I brought an old dress along," Elfreda informed her friends. "I helped
Ma set our cottage to rights this summer and I know something about
work. We had two maids and a scrubwoman. The maids were in my way, so I
sent them off for a holiday and the scrubwoman and I tackled the job and
went through with it like wildfire. Ma nearly had a spasm, but she liked
the looks of things when we had finished. You should have seen me,
though. Ma didn't like my looks. I guess I did resemble a human mop if
you know what that looks like."

"I can imagine," laughed Grace. "If you attack the business of putting
Harlowe House to rights with the same energy, I shall know exactly how
you looked when you cleaned the cottage."

"Perhaps you will," Elfre