lane.

"Plainly as I see you, my friend,
I saw the lilacs sway and bend,

"A blossoming apple-orchard where
The chimneys, fret the foggy air,

"And wide mown fields of clover sweet
Sent up their fragrance at my feet,

"And once again dear Phyllis sat
The thorn beneath, and trimmed her hat.

* * * * * * * *

"Long looked I for my wizard bard--
I found him on the boulevard.

"And now my urban hearth he cheers,
Singing all day of sylvan years,

"Right thankful for the warmer spot--
A cricket, by July forgot!"

Ticke looked inquiringly at Rattray when he had finished.
Elfrida turned away her head, and tapped the floor
impatiently with her foot.

"Isn't that dainty?" demanded Golightly.

"Dainty enough," Rattray responded, with a bored air.
"But you can't read it to the public, you know. Poetry
is out of the question. Poetry takes genius."

Golightly and Elfrida looked at each other sympathetically.
Mr. Ticke's eyes said, "How hideously we are making you
suffer," and Elfrida's conveyed a tacit reproach.

"Travels would do better," Rattray went on. "There's no
end of a market for anything new in travels. Go on a
walking tour through Spain, by yourself, disguised as a
nun or something, and write about what you see."

Elfrida flushed with pleasure at the reckless idea. A
score of situations rose before her thrilling, dangerous,
picturesque, with a beautiful nun in the foreground. "I
should like it above all things," she said, "but I have
no money."

"I'm afraid it would take a good deal," Rattray returned.

"That's a pity."

"It disposes of the question of travelling, though, for
the present," and Elfrida sighed with real regret.

"It's your turn, Ticke. Suggest something," Rattray went
on. "It must be unusual and it must be interesting. Miss
Bell must do something that no young lady has done before.
That much she must concede to the trade. Granting that,
the more artistically she does it the better."

"I should agree to that compromise," said Elfrida eagerly.
"Anything to be left with a free hand."

"The book should be copiously illustrated," continued
Rattray, "and the illustrations should draw their interest
from you personally."

"I don't think I should mind that."

Her imagination was busy at a bound with press criticisms,
pirated American editions, newspaper paragraphs describing
the color of her hair, letters from great magazines asking