“You ought to see how changed David is,” she said to Polly. “You’d hardly know him.”
“Has he grown so stout?” inquired Lilith innocently.
This sent Marietta off in a convulsion of laughter. “Oh, if that isn’t the very funniest thing!” she exclaimed at the end of her fit of mirth. “I must repeat that to David. How he will enjoy it!”
Lilith sat silent with reddening face. Polly’s eyes showed warning glints of displeasure. Finally Miss Converse was ready to explain.
“Oh, I did not mean that at all!” she smiled, halting a moment as if in satisfied recollections. “Of course, you live so very quietly here, it isn’t strange that you didn’t understand.” She glanced at Lilith. “David is a changed man. Why, he is the very life of the camp! He leads everything that’s going, and there’s something on all the time. We almost never get a day of rest. I’m actually glad to be where I can breathe quietly. Up there in the daytime it is rowing or bathing or hiking or tennis or golf or motor picnic, and there’s a party somewhere nearly every night. David is in the heart of it all, and the girls just adore him! He is really adorable! You’d never know him, never, for the dignified, reticent David Collins of Fair Harbor.”
A little amused smile on Polly’s face made Lilith wonder; but neither of them said much. Miss Converse did not need assistance. She talked until Lilith actually felt sleepy and finally excused herself on plea of some urgent duty. Polly longed to follow; but her guest gave her no chance for withdrawal, and it was late before she could obtain a release.
On the morning after Marietta’s arrival as Polly was passing through the kitchen, Benedicta called her aside and with a show of secrecy closed the door which opened on the dining-room porch.
“Miss Polly”--she lowered her tone--“there ain’t anything much for dinner! Somebody’s got to go down to Overlook, an’ it better be me.”
“More ’n I know. I told him we shouldn’t want anything Monday and he needn’t stop. I saw Mis’ Seldon last night and she said he was ’most sick when he was at her house; so I take it he ain’t comin’. It’s too late for him now. I’ve got to have some sugar for certain to-day--there’s cookies an’ shortcake an’ lots of things wantin’ sugar. An’ steak I must get--and eggs if Young Ben has got any. We ate up the last scrap of meat for breakfast--my! how that piece of vainglory does eat!”