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170 and have tea in the woods, a regular outing, dontcherknow."

"That's the ticket!" exclaimed Boswell. "Will you girls come?" and he looked particularly at Ruth.

"I don't know," she replied and then, in the spirit of mischief, she added: "I'll ask my brother. Perhaps he'd like to come. He is a good fisherman."

"Oh—er—it wasn't so much about the fish that I was thinking," spoke Pierce, a bit dismayed, and then he dropped the subject.

"Are you fond of old-fashioned jewelry?" asked Boswell, in a low voice to Ruth. "I mean old brooches and the like?"

"Yes—why?" asked Ruth rather startled.

"Oh, I only just wanted to know. I'm a bit that way myself. My mother has a very old brooch that I gave her. I mean it was old when I came across it and bought it. I'll borrow it some day and let you see it."

Ruth murmured a polite rejoinder, scarcely knowing what she did say, and then, as one of the lake steamers approached rather dangerously close to the launch, there was a moment of excitement aboard both craft, for Pierce, who should have been steering, had neglected it for the agreeable task of being polite to Mabel Harrison.

But nothing more than a scare resulted. When