"No. I am coming in, mother," Sarah said. Sarah spoke differently from
the others. She had had, as they expressed it in Adams, "advantages."
She had, in fact, graduated from a girls' school of considerable repute.
Her father had insisted upon it. Mrs. Lynn had rather rebelled against
the outlay on Sarah's education. She had John Mangam in mind, and she
thought that a course at the high school in Adams would fit her
admirably for her life. However, she deferred to Rufus Lynn, and Sarah
had her education.

The Lynn house was a large story-and-a-half cottage, the prevalent type
of house in Adams. Mrs. Lynn slept in the room she had always occupied
on the second floor. In hot weather Sarah slept in the bedroom opening
out of the best parlor, because the other second-floor room was hot.
Mrs. Lynn went up-stairs with her lamp and left Sarah to go to bed in
the bedroom out of the parlor. Sarah went in there with her own little
lamp, but even that room seemed stuffy. The heat of the day seemed to
have become confined in the house. Sarah stood irresolute for a moment.
She looked at the high mound of feather bed, at the small window at the
foot, whence came scarcely a whiff of the blessed night air. Them she
went back out on the door-step and again seated herself. As she sat
there the scent of the lilies came more strongly than ever, and now with
a curious effect. It was to the girl as if the fragrance were twining
and winding about her and impelling her like leashes. All at once an
impulse of yielding which was really freedom came to her. Why in the
world should she not cross the little north yard, step over the low
hedge, and go into that lily-garden? She knew that it would be beautiful
there. She looked forth into the crystalline light and the soft plumy
shade,--she would go over into the Ware garden. With all this, there was
no ulterior motive. She had seen the man who lived in the house, and she
admired him as one from afar, but she was a girl innocent not only in