"I don't suppose you care to come in?" she said.
"No, it is not worth while," answered Angela. "What a dear, picturesque old place you have here!" she added, as, Ida having stepped lightly into the carriage, the coachman turned the horses' heads toward the village. "I know you must have enjoyed the peace and rest of the last three weeks, after the whirl of last winter and spring."
"It is very cool and quiet here," said Ida, who was too proud to wish her friend to suspect her discontent.
"You may not care to accept an invitation I have for you," said Angela. "Mamma suggested I should ask you to spend August with us at Rocky Beach. We are all to go down on Saturday, and I thought it would be perfectly lovely if you would join us in about ten days. We will be settled then, and ready to receive you."
"It is good of you to ask me," said Ida, "and I would love to accept; but indeed I have nothing fit to wear, if you expect to be very gay."
"ISN'T SHE THE MOST ABSURD OBJECT YOU EVER SAW."
"But we don't," cried Angela. "It is oppressively dull at Rocky Beach. Our cottage is a quarter of a mile from any other, and over a mile from the hotel. Sometimes for days we have no company at all. But the air agrees with mamma, and so we go there every summer. Now do promise that you'll come. I simply can't endure it there without—Oh, do look, Ida! What a funny old woman! Did you ever see such a ridiculous parasol? Why, it must surely have been handed down from the ark!"
Ida's heart seemed to stop beating. She looked up, turning pale and then red, for coming along the road from the village, wearing the black embroidered silk cape, the old bonnet trimmed with faded purple ribbon, and holding over her head the ancient green parasol, was Aunt Patty. She was literally coated with dust, her face was flushed with the heat of the sun, and in her arms she carried a large pasteboard box.
"Isn't she the most absurd object you ever saw?" Angela bit her lip to keep from laughing. "I wonder who she is. Did you ever see her before, Ida?"