“Burn off?” cried Mrs. Alger.  “I should think it had!” The other ladies laughed.

“And you’ll see,” added Barlow, “that the wind ’ll change at noon, and we’ll have it cooler.”

“If it’s as hot on the water as it is here,” said Mrs. Scott, “I should think those people would get a sunstroke.”

“Well, so should I, Mrs. Scott,” cordially exclaimed a little fat lady, as if here at last were an opinion in which all might rejoice to sympathize.

“It’s never so hot on the water, Mrs. Merritt,” said Mrs. Alger, with the instructiveness of an old habitude.

“Well, not at Jocelyn’s,” suggested Barlow.  Mrs. Alger stopped fanning herself with her newspaper, and looked at him.  Upon her motion, the other ladies looked at Barlow.  Doubtless he felt that his social acceptability had ceased with his immediate usefulness.  But he appeared resolved to carry it off easily.  “Well,” he said, “I suppose I must go and pick my peas.”

No one said anything to this.  When the factotum had disappeared round the corner of the house, Mrs. Alger turned her head’ aside, and glanced downward with an air of fatigue.  In this manner Barlow was dismissed from the ladies’ minds.

“I presume,” said young Mrs. Scott, with a deferential glance at Grace, “that the sun is good for a person with lung-difficulty.”

Grace silently refused to consider herself appealed to, and Mrs. Merritt said, “Better than the moon, I should think.”

Some of the others tittered, but Grace looked up at Mrs. Merritt and said, “I don’t think Mrs. Maynard’s case is so bad that she need be afraid of either.”

“Oh, I am so glad to hear it!” replied the other.  She looked round, but was unable to form a party.  By twos or threes they might have liked to take Mrs. Maynard to pieces; but no one cares to make unkind remarks before a whole company of people.  Some of the ladies even began to say pleasant things about Mr. Libby, as if he were Grace’s friend.

“I always like to see these fair men when they get tanned,” said Mrs. Alger.  “Their blue eyes look so very blue.  And the backs of their necks—­just like my boys!”

“Do you admire such a very fighting-clip as Mr. Libby has on?” asked Mrs. Scott.

“It must be nice for summer,” returned the elder lady.

“Yes, it certainly must,” admitted the younger.

“Really,” said another, “I wish I could go in the fighting-clip.  One does n’t know what to do with one’s hair at the sea-side; it’s always in the way.”

“Your hair would be a public loss, Mrs. Frost,” said Mrs. Alger.  The others looked at her hair, as if they had seen it now for the first time.

“Oh, I don’t think so,” said Mrs. Frost, in a sort of flattered coo.

“Oh, don’t have it cut off!” pleaded a young girl, coming up and taking the beautiful mane, hanging loose after the bath, into her hand.  Mrs. Frost put her arm round the girl’s waist, and pulled her down against her shoulder.  Upon reflection she also kissed her.