"Long walks will tire you more," he answered, instantly suspicious.
"Yes, I don't feel equal to them now," she answered, her grave glance dropping again to her plate.
He regarded her with a troubled frown.
"That hammock chair and a hammock will be out to-day," he said. "I'll put 'em under the elm you're so stuck on, and I guess we can scare up some books for you to read."
Geraldine's heart began to quicken and she put a guard upon her manner lest eagerness should crop out in spite of her.
"It is early for shade," she replied. "The sun is pleasant. Everything is so bare about here," she added wearily. "I wish I could find some flowers."
Then it was that Mrs. Carder, poor dumb automaton, volunteered a remark; and the most silver-tongued orator could not have better pleased Geraldine with eloquence.
"Used to be quite a lot grow down in the medder," she said.
Geraldine's heart beat like a little triphammer, but she did not look up from her plate, nor change her listless expression.
"I'd like to go and see if there are any," she said. "I love them. Where is the meadow?"