“Yes, but I don’t feel as if I were.  It’s all so far away.  And I never see it.  If I had anything to say about it, I might feel differently.  But I haven’t.  So please don’t inflict it on me.”

“But it’s the inspiration of building it for you women,” Pete said gravely, “that makes us men work like slaves.  We’re only doing it for your sake.  It is the expression of our love and admiration for you.”

“Oh, slush!” exclaimed Clara flippantly, borrowing from Honey’s vocabulary.  “You’re building it to please yourself.  Besides, I don’t want to be an inspiration for anything.”

“All right, then,” Pete said in an aggrieved tone.  “But you are an inspiration, just the same.  It is the chief vocation of women.”  He moved over to the desk and took up a bunch of papers there.

“Oh, are you going to write again this evening?” Clara asked in a burst of despair.

“Yes.”  Pete hesitated.  “I thought I’d work for an hour or two and then I’d go out.”

Clara groaned.  “If you leave me another minute of this day, I shall go mad.  I’ve had nothing but housework all the morning and then a little talk with the girls, late this afternoon.  I want something different now.”

“Well, let me read the third act to you,” Pete offered.

“No, I don’t feel like being read to.  I want some excitement.”

Pete sighed, and put his manuscript down.

“All right.  Let’s go in swimming.  But I’ll have to leave you after an hour.”

“Are you going to see Peachy?” Clara demanded shrilly.

“No.”  Pete’s tone was stern.  “I’m going to the Clubhouse.”

“How has everything gone to-day, Billy?” Julia asked, as they sat looking out to sea.

“Rather well,” Billy answered.  “We were all in a working mood and all in good spirits.  We’ve done more to-day than we’ve done in any three days before.  At noon, while we were eating our lunch, I showed them your plans.”

“You didn’t say — .”

“I didn’t peep.  I promised, you know.  I let them assume that they were mine.  They went wild over them, threw all kinds of fits.  You see, Pete has a really fine artistic sense that’s going to waste in all these minor problems of construction and drainage.  I flatter myself that I, too, have some taste.  Addington and Honey are both good workmen — that is, they work steadily under instruction.  Merrill’s only an inspired plumber, of course.  Pete and I have been feeling for a long time that we wanted to do something more creative, more esthetic.  This is just the thing we needed.  I’m glad you thought it out; for I was beginning to grow stale.  I sometimes wonder what will happen when the New Camp is entirely built and there’s nothing else to do.”

Billy’s voice had, in spite of his temperamental optimism, a dull note of unpleasant anticipation.

“There’ll be plenty to do after that.”  Julia smiled reassuringly.  “I’m working on a plan to lay out the entire island.  That will take years and years and years.  Even then you’ll need help.”