“I am Dr. Hope,” he went on; “your father telegraphed when you were to leave Chicago, and I have come down to two or three trains in the hope of meeting you.”

“Have you, indeed?” said Clover, with a rush of relief.  “How very kind of you!  And so papa telegraphed!  I never thought of that.  Phil, here is Dr. Hope, papa’s friend; Dr. Hope, Mrs. Watson.”

“This is really a very agreeable attention,—­your coming to meet us,” said Mrs. Watson; “a very agreeable attention indeed.  Well, I shall write Ellen—­that’s my daughter, Mrs. Phillips, you know—­that before we had got out of the cars, a gentleman—­And though I’ve always been in the habit of going about a good deal, it’s always been in the East, of course, and things are—­What are we going to do first, Dr. Hope?  Miss Carr has a great deal of energy for a girl, but naturally—­I suppose there’s an hotel at St. Helen’s.  Ellen is rather particular where I stay.  ’At your age, Mother, you must be made comfortable, whatever it costs,’ she says; and so I—­An only daughter, you know—­but you’ll attend to all those things for us now, Doctor.”

“There’s quite a good hotel,” said Dr. Hope, his eyes twinkling a little; “I’ll show it to you as we drive up.  You’ll find it very comfortable if you prefer to go there.  But for these young people I’ve taken rooms at a boarding-house, a quieter and less expensive place.  I thought it was what your father would prefer,” he added in a lower tone to Clover.

“I am sure he would,” she replied; but Mrs. Watson broke in,—­

“Oh, I shall go wherever Miss Carr goes.  She’s under my care, you know—­Though at the same time I must say that in the long run I have generally found that the most expensive places turn out the cheapest.  As Ellen often says, get the best and—­What do they charge at this hotel that you speak of, Dr. Hope?”

“The Shoshone House?  About twenty-five dollars a week, I think, if you make a permanent arrangement.”

“That is a good deal,” remarked Mrs. Watson, meditatively, while Clover hastened to say,—­

“It is a great deal more than Phil and I can spend, Dr. Hope; I am glad you have chosen the other place for us.”

“I suppose it is better,” admitted Mm Watson; but when they gained the top of the hill, and a picturesque, many-gabled, many-balconied structure was pointed out as the Shoshone, her regrets returned, and she began again to murmur that very often the most expensive places turned out the cheapest in the end, and that it stood to reason that they must be the best.  Dr. Hope rather encouraged this view, and proposed that she should stop and look at some rooms; but no, she could not desert her young charges and would go on, though at the same time she must say that her opinion as an older person who had seen more of the world was—­She was used to being consulted.  Why, Addy Phillips wouldn’t order that crushed strawberry bengaline of hers till Mrs. Watson saw the sample, and—­But girls had their own ideas, and were bound to carry them out, Ellen always said so, and for her part she knew her duty and meant to do it!