rhaps she has gone to sleep, too."

"Well, you haven't, anyway. Come! I hate those carpenters with a
virulence that grows worse every hour."

The young hostess laughed. "I've only to stay with them a little while
longer. Come with me. They're nearly through, and then we'll get Sylvia
and go off somewhere."

John followed lazily to mysterious regions at the back of the cottage.
Sylvia, listening at the head of the stairs, heard them go. It was her
opportunity.

CHAPTER XXIX

THE WHITE BAG

Edna's responsibilities and nap-time came to an end simultaneously, and
Dunham proposed that they take their book to the Fir Ledges, as a spot
where the waves were not too noisy and the outlook was superb for such
luxurious mortals as need lend their ears only, and not their eyes, to
the story.

They came into the living-room as he made his suggestion, and saw Miss
Lacey just coming downstairs.

"Where is Sylvia?" asked Edna.

"I don't believe she's up yet," replied Miss Martha. "She went to her
room at the same time I did, and she certainly did look tired out. I
begged her to show common sense and not run around so incessantly. I
told her to lie down and not move until she was rested. Foolish child!
She's so in love with this place she seems to think she's wasting time
unless she's on the keen jump from morning until night."

"Wouldn't it rest her to come with us?" asked Dunham. "We're going to
the Fir Ledges to read."

"Well, I don't know,"--Miss Lacey tossed her head doubtfully,--"it's
quite a walk down there, and her door is tight shut."

John looked at Edna.

"I suppose the kindest thing to do would be to let her alone," said
Edna. "When she comes down. Miss Martha, please tell her where we are,
and ask her to join us. Perhaps she can bring you and Judge Trent with
her. I see he is still motionless in that hammock."

"Yes, tell her to be sure to come," said Dunham; and the two left the
house and started off through the wood road.

Edna did not regret her words to Sylvia, but she could not help
connecting them with Miss Lacey's description of the girl's fagged
appearance. So temperamental a creature as Sylvia would be prone to
exaggerate a situation. Very well, Edna would take the earliest
opportunity--bedtime this evening--for an open talk with her. Perhaps
it was the excitement of having given John that which she had prepared
for him which had left her pale by the time her aunt met her,--that and
the