Vacation, in spite of increased leisure, may bring inconvenience to people in Ramsey's strange but not uncommon condition.

At home his constant air was that of a badgered captive plaintively silent under injustice; and he found it difficult to reply calmly when asked where he was going--an inquiry addressed to him, he asserted, every time he touched his cap, even to hang it up! The amount of evening walking he did must also have been a trial to his nerves, on account of fatigue, though the ground covered was not vast.
Milla's mother and father were friendly people but saw no reason to "move out of house and home," as Mr.Rust said, when Milla had "callers"; and on account of the intimate plan of their small dwelling a visitor's only alternative to spending the evening with Mr.and Mrs.
Rust as well as with Milla, was to invite her to "go out walking." Evening after evening they walked and walked and walked, usually in company--at perhaps the distance of half a block--with Albert Paxton and Sadie Clews, though Ramsey now and then felt disgraced by having fallen into this class; for sometimes it was apparent that Albert casually had his arm about Sadie's waist.

This allured Ramsey somewhat, but terrified him more.

He didn't know how such matters were managed.
Usually the quartet had no destination; they just went "out walking" until ten o'clock, when both girls had to be home--and the boys did, too, but never admitted it.

On Friday evenings there was a "public open-air concert" by a brass band in a small park, and the four were always there.