Page:Stella Dallas, a novel (IA stelladallasnove00prou).pdf/230

220 Richard looked toward the shore, too. Had she seen another deer?

When they landed at Stag Island half an hour later, "Don't forget you're going to paddle back with me, too," Richard whispered.

day long one happy moment followed another as uninterruptedly as one telegraph-pole another flashing by the window of a railroad train. It had been like that ever since the morning Mrs. Adams had fallen into conversation with Laurel on the hotel veranda. That was ten days ago, yet Laurel was only just beginning to become sufficiently used to the steady succession of kindnesses as to take them for granted, as to forget for an hour or so, occasionally, the phenomenon of their unfailing repetition.

Mrs. Adams had noticed Laurel the first morning she had appeared alone in the hotel dining-room. So, too, had others noticed her. The head-waiter had shown Laurel to a table by a far window. After she had sat there alone during breakfast, lunch, and dinner, Mrs. Adams made inquiries of the clerk. It seemed the new girl's mother was ill upstairs. Tonsillitis. The hotel doctor was taking care of her. Mrs. Adams spoke to Laurel that morning, asked her if there was anything she could do to help, and introduced her to two girls standing, near by, with tennis racquets.

"Do you play?" asked one of the girls.

"Will you play?" asked the other.

It was as easy as that. That very morning