However, when the High Cliff House was reached its proprietor found that her fears were groundless.  But a few of the boarders had planned to eat their evening meal there; most of the city contingent were stopping at various teahouses and restaurants in Ostable or along the road and would not be home until late.

“Everything’s fine, ma’am,” declared Imogene.  “There was only three or four here for supper and I fixed them all right.  Mr. Hammond came in late, but I fed him up and he’s gone to bed.  Tired out, I guess.  I asked him if he had a good time and he said he had, but it cost him a sight of money.”

Captain Obed laughed.  “Caleb will have to do without his mornin’ newspapers for quite a spell to make up for today’s extravagance,” he declared.  “That’s what ’tis to take the girls around.  Better take warnin’, John.”

John Kendrick smiled.  “Considering,” he said, “that you and I have almost come to blows before I was permitted to even buy a package of popcorn with my own money, I think you need the warning more than I, Cap’n Bangs.”

“Imogene,” said Thankful, “you’ve been a real, nice girl today; you’ve helped me out a lot and I shan’t forget it.  Now you go to bed and rest, so’s to feel like gettin’ an early start for the Fair tomorrow.”

Imogene shook her head.  “I can’t go right now, thank you, ma’am,” she said.  “I’ve got company.”

Emily and Thankful looked at each other.

“Company!” repeated the former.  “What company?”

Before Imogene could answer the dining-room door was flung open and Hannah Parker rushed in.  She was still arrayed in her Sunday gown, which she had donned in honor of Fair Day, but her Sunday bonnet was, as Captain Obed said afterward, “canted down to leeward” and her general appearance indicated alarm and apprehension.

“Why, Hannah!” exclaimed Thankful.  “Why, Miss Parker, what’s the matter?”

Hannah’s glance swept the group before her; then it fastened upon Imogene.

“Where’s my brother?” she demanded.  “Have you seen my brother?”

Captain Bangs broke in.

“Your brother?  Kenelm?” he asked.  “Why, what about Kenelm?  Ain’t he to home?”

“No.  No, he ain’t.  And he ain’t been home, either.  I left a cold supper for him on the table, and I put the teapot on the rack of the stove ready for him to bile.  But he ain’t been there.  It ain’t been touched.  I—­I can’t think what—­”

Imogene interrupted.  “Your brother’s all right, Miss Parker,” she said, calmly.  “He’s been havin’ supper with me out in the kitchen.  He’s there now.  He’s the company I said I had, Mrs. Thankful.”

Hannah stared at her.  Imogene returned the gaze coolly, blandly and with a serene air of confident triumph.

“Perhaps you’d better come out and see him, ma’am,” she went on.  “He—­we, that is—­have got somethin’ to tell you.  The rest can come, too, if they want to,” she added.  “It’s nothin’ we want to keep from you.”