CHAPTER VIII.
THE GYPSY FORTUNE-TELLER.
There had fallen a pause in the round of merry-makings.

After a week of picnics and fishing-parties, lawn fetes and tennis tournaments, there came a day for which no special entertainment had been planned.

It was a hot morning, and the girls were out under the trees: Betty in the swing, with a book in her lap, as usual, Joyce on a camp-stool near by, making a sketch of her, and Eugenia swinging idly in a hammock.
The Little Colonel had been swinging with her, but something had called her to the house, and a deep silence fell on the little group after her departure.

Betty, lost in her book, and Joyce, intent on her sketch, did not seem to notice it, but presently Eugenia sat up in the hammock and gave her pillow an impatient thump.
[Illustration: "'I'M GLAD THAT I DON'T HAVE TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY THE YEAR ROUND!'"] "Whew! how deadly stupid it is here!" she exclaimed.

"I'm glad that I don't have to live in the country the year round! Nothing to do--nothing to see--I'd turn to a vegetable in a little while and strike root.