The next morning she chanced to need several little things that were not to be found in Cap’n Abe’s store and she went uptown in quest of them.  At midday she was still thus engaged, so she went to the Inn for lunch.

Gusty Durgin spied her as she entered and found a small table for Louise where she would be alone.  A fat woman whom Gusty mentioned as “the boss’s sister, Sara Ann Whipple,” helped wait upon the guests.  Several of the business men of the town, as well as the guests of the Inn, took their dinners there.

To one man, sitting alone at a table not far distant, Louise saw that Gusty was particularly attentive.  He was typically a city man; one could not for a moment mistake him for a product of the Cape.

He was either a young-old or an old-young looking man, his hair graying at the temples, but very luxuriant and worn rather long.  A bright complexion and beautifully kept teeth and hands marked him as one more than usually careful of his personal appearance.  Indeed, his character seemed to border on that of the exquisite.

His countenance was without doubt attractive, for it was intelligent and expressed a quiet humor that seemed to have much kindliness mixed with it.  His treatment of the unsophisticated Gusty, who hovered about him with open admiration, held just that quality of good-natured tolerance which did not offend the waitress but that showed discerning persons that he considered her only in the light of an artless child.

“D’you know who that is?” Gusty whispered to Louise when she found time to do so.  The plump girl was vastly excited; her hands shook as she set down the dishes.  “That’s Mr. Judson Bane.”

“Yes.  I chanced to meet Mr. Bane once, as I told you,” smiled Louise, keeping up the illusion of her own connection with the fringe of the theatrical world.

“And Miss Louder and Miss Noyes have come.  My, you ought to see them!” said the emphatic waitress.  “They’ve got one o’ them flivvers.  Some gen’leman friend of Miss Noyes’ lent it to ’em.  They’re out now hunting what they call a garridge for it.  That’s a fancy name for a barn, I guess.  And dressed!” gasped Gusty finally.  “They’re dressed to kill!”

“We shall have lively times around Cardhaven now, sha’n’t we?” Louise commented demurely.

“We almost always do in summer,” Gusty agreed with a sigh.  “Last summer an Italian lost his trick bear in the pine woods ’twixt here and Paulmouth and the young ’uns didn’t darest to go out of the houses for a week.  Poor critter!  When they got him he was fair foundered eating green cranberries in the bogs.”

“Something doing,” no matter what, was Gusty’s idea of life as it should be.  Louise finished her meal and went out of the dining-room.  In the hall her mesh bag caught in the latch of the screen door and dropped to the floor.  Somebody was right at hand to pick it up for her.