Holding the tired-out little junior in her lap, Chiquita rocked and
fanned herself and napped - and woke - and rocked and fanned herself and
napped again.
"Oh, don't bore me with any talk about the New Camp," Clara was saying
to Pete. "I'm not an atom interested in it."
"But you're going to live there sometime," Pete remonstrated, wrinkling
in perplexity his fiery, freckled face.
"Yes, but I don't feel as if I were. It's all so far away. And I never
see it. If I had anything to say about it, I might feel differently. But
I haven't. So please don't inflict it on me."
"But it's the inspiration of building it for you women," Pete said
gravely, "that makes us men work like slaves. We're only doing it for
your sake. It is the expression of our love and admiration for you."
"Oh, slush!" exclaimed Clara flippantly, borrowing from Honey's
vocabulary. "You're building it to please yourself. Besides, I don't
want to be an inspiration for anything."
"All right, then," Pete said in an aggrieved tone. "But you are an
inspiration, just the same. It is the chief vocation of women." He moved
over to the desk and took up a bunch of papers there.
"Oh, are you going to write again this evening?" Clara asked in a burst
of despair.
"Yes." Pete hesitated. "I thought I'd work for an hour or two and then
I'd go out."
Clara groaned. "If you leave me another minute of this day, I shall go
mad. I've had nothing but housework all the morning and then a little
talk with the girls, late this afternoon. I want something different
now."
"Well, let me read the third act to you," Pete offered.
"No, I don't feel like being read to. I want some excitement."
Pete sighed, and put his manuscript down.
"All right. Let's go in swimming. But I'll have to leave you after an
hour."
"Are you going to see Peachy?" Clara demanded shrilly.
"No." Pete's tone was stern. "I'm going to the Clubhouse."
"How has everything gone to-day, Billy?" Julia asked, as they sat
looking out to sea.
"Rather well," Billy answered. "We were all in a working mood and all in
good spirits. We've done more to-day than we've done in any three days
before. At noon, while we were eating our lunch, I showed them your
plans."