Sitting there, I suddenly made a discovery.  The boat house was near me, and I realize that upstairs, above the Bath-houses, et cetera, there must be a room or two.  The very thought intriged me (a new word for interest, but coming into use, and sounding well).

Solatude—­how I craved it for my work.  And here it was, or would be when I had got the Place fixed up.  True, the next door boat-house was close, but a boat-house is a quiet place, generaly, and I knew that nowhere, aside from the dessert, is there perfect Silence.

I investagated at once, but found the place locked and the boatman gone.  However, there was a latice, and I climbed up that and got in.  I had a Fright there, as it seemed to be full of people, but I soon saw it was only the Familey bathing suits hung up to dry.  Aside from the odor of drying things it was a fine study, and I decided to take a small table there, and the various tools of my Profession.

Climbing down, however, I had a surprise.  For a man was just below, and I nearly put my foot on his shoulder in the darkness.

“Hello!” he said.  “So it’s you.”

I was quite speachless.  It was Mr. Beecher himself, in his dinner clothes and bareheaded.

Oh flutering Heart, be still.  Oh Pen, move steadily.  Oh Tempora O mores!

“Let me down,” I said.  I was still hanging to the latice.

“In a moment,” he said.  “I have an idea that the instant I do you’ll vanish.  And I have somthing to tell you.”

I could hardly beleive my ears.

“You see,” he went on, “I think you must move that Bench.”

“Bench?”

“You seem to be so very popular,” he said.  “And of course I’m only a transient and don’t matter.  But some evening one of the admirers may be on the Patten’s porch, while another is with you on the bench.  And—­the Moon rises beyond it.”

I was silent with horor.  So that was what he thought of me.  Like all the others, he, to, did not understand.  He considered me a Flirt, when my only Thoughts were serious ones, of imortality and so on.

“You’d better come down now,” he said.  “I was afraid to warn you until I saw you climbing the latice.  Then I knew you were still young enough to take a friendly word of Advise.”

I got down then and stood before him.  He was magnifacent.  Is there anything more beautiful than a tall man with a gleaming expance of dress shirt?  I think not.

But he was staring at me.

“Look here,” he said.  “I’m afraid I’ve made a mistake after all.  I thought you were a little girl.”

“That needn’t worry you.  Everybody does,” I replied.  “I’m seventeen, but I shall be a mere Child until I come out.”

“Oh!” he said.

“One day I am a Child in the nursery,” I said.  “And the next I’m grown up and ready to be sold to the highest Bider.”

“I beg your pardon, I——­”