"Walks," said Mrs. Ironwood. "And talks. And stands. I hope you've both brought plenty of shoes."
"I noticed the stones, as we came along," said Rose.
"Stones! It's the soft going that tells on the shoes, child. I brought Mary Gates here one rainy spring, and she finished her overshoes in a week, and I had to send her home."
"In a week! Did she dance instead of walking?"
"Danced attendance," said Mrs. Congressman. "I didn't mean to pun, girls, but that was the fact. Now I should take you straight off to the guard-house to see Magnus——"
"The guard-house?"
"The visitors' room, there, silly! but work begins at two o'clock, and we shouldn't find him. So I'll go and get a snooze, and you'd best do the same."
"We could not possibly sleep," said Violet. "We'll sit out on the piazza and look."
"It's a fine view, whichever way," said Mrs. Ironwood; "but the Land of Nod is more to my mind just now. Sit out here, then, or do what you like, only don't go off hotel limits. There's no town crier here. And call me at a quarter past three. And girls"—she put her head inside the door again—"whatever you do, don't go down and stand at the hotel fence."
The girls listened to the retreating footsteps, but then they looked at each other and laughed.