"He has claimed you!" she said. "He is here, somwhere about this Place,
and now, having had time to think it over, you do not Want to go to him.
Don't deny it. I see it in your face. Oh, Bab, my heart aches for you."

It sounded so like a play that I kept it up. Alas, with what results!

"What else can I do, Jane?" I said.

"You can refuse, if you do not love him. Oh Bab, I did not say it
before, thinking you loved him. But no man who wears clothes like those
could ever win my heart. At least, not permanently."

Well, she did most of the talking. She had finished the bath towle,
which was a large size, after all, and monogramed, and she made me
promise never to let my husband use it. When she went away she left it
with me, and I carried it out and put it on the rafters, with the other
things--I seemed to be getting more to hide every day.

Things went all wrong the next day. Sis was in a bad temper, and as much
as said I was flirting with Carter Brooks, although she never intends to
marry him herself, owing to his not having money and never having asked
her.

I spent the morning in fixing up a Studio in the boat-house, and felt
better by noon. I took two boards on trestles and made a desk, and
brought a Dictionery and some pens and ink out. I use a Dictionery
because now and then I am uncertain how to spell a word.

Events now moved swiftly and terrably. I did not do much work, being
exhausted by my efforts to fix up the studio, and besides, feeling that