“Everyone is, though you are young to realize it.  Our social life is very deceiving.  Most of us wake up some day to find ourselves alone in a desert.”

Desire swung the hammock gently with the tip of her shoe.  “Is not one ever a part of a whole?”

“Socially, yes.  Spiritually—­I doubt it.  It is some-thing which you will have to decide for yourself.”

“I don’t want to be alone,” said Desire rebelliously.  “It frightens me.  I want to have a place.  I want to fit in.  But here, it seems as if I had come too late.  Every-one is fitted in already.  There isn’t a tiny corner left.”

Spence’s grey eyes looked at her with a curious light in their depths.

“Wait,” he said.  “You haven’t found your corner yet.  When you do, the rest won’t matter.”

“But people do not want me.  I had a horrid dream last night.  I was wandering all through Bainbridge and all the doors were open so that I might go in anywhere.  I was glad—­at first.  But I soon saw that my freedom did not mean anything.  No one saw me when I entered or cared when I went away.  I spoke to them and they did not answer.  Then I knew that I was just a ghost”

“I’m another,” said a cheerful voice behind them.  “All my ’too, too solid flesh’ is melting rapidly.  Only ice-cream can save me now!” Using his straw hat vigorously as a fan Dr. Rogers dropped limply into an empty chair.  “Tell you a secret,” he went on confidentially.  “I had two invitations to Sunday supper but neither included ice-cream.  So I came on here.”

“Very kind, I’m sure,” murmured Benis.

“How did you guess?” began Desire, and then she dimpled.  “Oh, of course,—­Benis wasn’t in church.”

“How did he know that?” asked Benis sharply.  “He wasn’t there, was he?”

The doctor looked conscious.  Desire laughed.  “His presence did seem to create a mild sensation,” she admitted.

“Well, you see,” he explained, “in the summer I am often very busy—­ "

“In the cellar,” murmured Benis.

“But no one happened to need me today and, besides, my freezer is broken.  This, combined with—­”

“An added attraction,” sotto voce from the professor.

“Oh, well—­I went, anyway.”

“I saw you there,” said Desire, ignoring their banter.  “I thought you might have gone for the sermon.  The subject was one of your specialties, wasn’t it?”

The doctor twirled his hat.

“Better tell him what the subject was,” suggested Benis unkindly.

“Didn’t you listen?” Desire’s inquiring eyebrows lifted.  “That’s one of the things I don’t understand about people here.  Church and church affairs seem to play such an important part in Bainbridge.  Nearly everyone goes to some church.  But no one seems at all disturbed about what they hear there.  Is it because they believe all that the minister says, or because they don’t believe any of it?”