Already we’ve settled into a pleasant routine. Our rooms are on the third floor, mine a few doors down from Daphne’s: hers larger than mine, of course, as she needs space for her specimens, but both very comfortable. In addition to my bed and dresser and wardrobe, I have an armchair near a window that looks out over the tennis courts, and a sturdy desk. After breakfast in the dining hall downstairs (airy and well laid out, if a bit noisy; over two hundred people are staying here!), we take a walk along the shore and then return to our rooms to work. We meet again downstairs for lunch and then, depending on the tide and the weather, visit the tidal pools, or take out one of the hotel’s rowboats, or swim in the bathing area. The island is small (about half a mile wide, I think; and perhaps a bit longer), but so rugged and broken by the sea that we keep discovering new pools and crannies. After dinner we relax for a while on the huge porch, which stretches the length of the hotel and is lined with rocking chairs.

Daphne’s working furiously on a book about the plants and creatures of the shore, collecting samples (I help her with this) and comparing them with the photos and descriptions in other books, writing up her own descriptions. I read what she writes each day and offer suggestions, but am also working through Darwin’s book about insectivorous plants. Much of it is about the common sundew, which grows at home, so I can easily gather plants for my class.

Daphne knows the place already, from when she came here alone two years ago. She also met Mrs. Thaxter, who owns the big cottage near the hotel, then. But she hadn’t really gotten to know her, and last night she announced, with much excitement, that she’d managed to get us an invitation to the evening’s gathering at Mrs. Thaxter’s cottage. Apparently this is a great coup! Only the most select of the hotel’s guests are invited, writers and musicians and painters and so forth. Honestly I would rather have had a quiet night reading or watching the stars, but Daphne was so pleased with herself (I think she tried and failed to get invited before) that I felt I had to go.