lness.

"I hate people," he declared.

Yet, for a bashful youth, he was singularly deliberate and masterful,
seeming to know what he wanted and how to get it. To-night it was that
Alexina go with him in a small boat. The others started first, a youth
in a striped flannel coat, strumming a guitar.

King put out last. He rowed slowly and often the boat drifted. When
they entered the lock connecting the first lake with the next, the
other boats had all passed through. The moon scarcely penetrated the
dense foliage on the banks above them, and the ripple of the water
against the boat seemed only to emphasize the silence, the aloofness.
There must have been an early blossom of jasmine about, so sweet was
the gloom.

When they passed out into the vaulted space and open water of the
next lake, the other boats were far ahead. The tinkling cadence of the
guitar floated back to them.

He rowed lazily on. Presently he spoke. "I wonder if you remember how
we used to talk, 'way back yonder, about the Land of Colchis?"

"Yes," said Alexina; "I remember."

"I believe we are there at last. We closed the contract for our
oranges to-day. It's pretty fair gold, the fruit in Colchis. We pick
for delivery on Monday."

He never had talked to her of personal affairs before, it was Mrs.
Leroy who had told her what she knew.

"There are several purchasers looking at the place we are going to
sell, for dwellers in Colchis, you know, are only sojourners; they
long for home."

"The Jasons, too?"

"This Jason at any rate. He wants four seasons to his year, and to
hear his horse's feet on pike, and to put his seed into loam."

They slipped through the next lock and out upon the long length of
Cherokee, the lake of the island which was their destination. It
seemed to bring self-consciousness upon the speaker.

"You are so the same as you used to be," he said, "I forget. How do I
know you want to hear all this?"

"You do know," said Alexina, honestly.

He did not answer. They were coming up to the other boats now, beached
at the island. Lights were flickering up and down the sand and the
rosy glare of a beach fire shone out from under the darkness of the
trees. Figures were moving between it and them and they could hear
voices and laughter.

"You do know," repeated the girl.

They had grounded. He was shipping the oars. Then he got up and held
out a hand to steady her. She, standing, put hers into it. They did
not look at each