Mrs.Boyd was sure she would find material and local colour for several stories, and she felt that it was an opportunity that she could not afford to miss.
"Then Mary must stay with me," declared Eugenia, and Mary found it hard to refuse her hospitable insistence.

Had it not been for the lost shilling she would have stayed gladly, and once, she was almost on the verge of confessing the real reason to Eugenia.
"I don't see why I should mind her knowing how much I think of it," she mused.

"But I don't want anybody to know.

They'd remember about its being a 'Philip and Mary shilling,' and they'd smile at each other behind my back as if they thought I attached some importance to it on that account." To the delight of each of the girls, the invitation which they felt obliged to decline was changed to one for the week-end, so when they waved good-bye from the sleigh on their way to the station, it was with the prospect of a speedy return.
"'And they had feasting and merry-making for seventy days and seventy nights,'" quoted Mary, as the train drew into the city.

"I used to wonder how they stood it for such a long stretch, but I know now.