"Are you afraid to come up the ladder?"
"No, I don't mean that; but how shall I get in where you are, after I am up?"
"Oh, never fear! I'll draw you in safely enough."
"Lorful heart! Miss Ivy, what are you going to do?" cried Mrs. Simm, in terror.
Ivy was already on the third round of the ladder, but she stopped and answered, hesitatingly,—"He said I might."
"He said you might, yes," continued Mrs. Simm,—talking to Ivy, but at Mr. Clerron, with whom she hardly dared to remonstrate in a more direct way. "And if he said you might throw yourself down Vineyard Cliff, it don't follow that you are bound to do it. He goes into all sorts of hap-hazard scrapes himself, but you can't follow him."
"But it looks so nice up there," pleaded Ivy, "and I have been twice as high at home. I don't mind it at all."
"If your father chooses to let you run the risk of your life, it's none of my look-out, but I a'n't going to have you breaking your neck right under my nose. If you want to get up there, I'll show you the way in the house, and you can step right out of the window. Just wait till I've told Ellen about the dinner."
As Mrs. Simm disappeared, Mr. Clerron said softly to Ivy, "Come!"—and in a moment Ivy bounded up the ladder and through an opening in the vine, and stood by his side.
"I'm ready now, Miss Ivy," said Mrs. Simm, reappearing. "Miss Ivy! Where is the child?"