luncheon kept waiting again," said Mamma. In another moment loud eager cries from the garden reached her[Pg 82] through the open window. "Lilly, Lilly, where are you? Mamma says if you will come—" and then the voices faded away in the distance. [Pg 82] "Poor Lilly," thought Mamma, with a smile. "I wonder if it's a shame of me to let those wild children torment her. I dare say she was counting on a quiet morning." But whether Lilly was disappointed or not, no sign of anything but content and pleasure appeared on her pretty, bright face when the little group of bathers, all brushed up and tidy again, took their places round the luncheon-table. "That's right," said Mamma. "You really have been very expeditious this morning. Whom am I to praise?" She knew before it came what the answer would be. "Oh, Lilly. Lilly, of course," said Joan, always ready to be spokeswoman. "Lilly made us promise to do exactly as she told us before we went." "She timed us," said Bill. "Yes," Joan went on, "wasn't it a good plan? Lilly put her watch on a rock and gave us five minutes to undress in, and a quarter of an hour[Pg 83] to stay in the sea, and ten minutes to dress in. Bill and Humphrey were in the gentlemen's dressing-room, of course—that's what we call the other little bay—and Lilly had to roar out to them, 'one minute more only,'—'two minutes more,' just like a railway man at a station. It was such fun, and—" [Pg 83] "My dear Joan, you will never eat your dinner if you chatter so," said her mother, "and we can't wait for you. I am going a long drive this afternoon, and I shall only just have time," and Mamma looked at her watch. "I hope I am a little fast," she added. "What time do you make it, Lilly dear? Your watch is always to be relied on." Lilly's hand instinctively went to her watch-pocket—then she suddenly looked up with a rather startled expression. "My watch!" she exclaimed. "I must have left it up stairs. Mamma—might I run up for a moment and see, if you don't mind?" Mamma nodded. She knew that Lilly's watch was one of the girl's most prized treasures. It was a handsome, though rather bulky one,[Pg 84]
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