t twenty-six he might
very truthfully state,--"I've been a rotten loafer always, you know. But
I'm reformed. Chicago's reformed me. That's what Brother meant.... Now
watch and see. I'm not going to draw ridiculous pot-bellied politicians
for a newspaper--not after I have saved the fare to Europe and a few
dollars over to keep me from starving while I learn to really paint."

"Of course you won't stay here!" Milly chimed sympathetically, with an
unconscious sigh....

It is marvellous what a vast amount of mutual biography two young
persons of the opposite sexes can exchange in a brief tete-a-tete. By
the time Milly and the young artist were strolling slowly northward in
the sombre city twilight, they had become old friends, and Milly was
hearing about the girl in Rome, the fascination of artist life in
Munich, the stunning things in the last Salon, and all the rest of it.
They parted at Milly's doorstep without speaking of another meeting, for
it never occurred to either that they should not meet--the next day.

The gardens of that California Hesperides were already getting dim in
Milly's memory, blotted out by a more intoxicating vision.

IX

MILLY IN LOVE

The next meeting was not farther off than the next noon. They lunched
together, to talk further of their collaboration, and from luncheon went
to the Art Institute to see the pictures, most of which Bragdon disposed
off condescendingly as "old-style stuff." Milly, who had been taught to
reverence this selection of masterpieces, which were the local
admiration, learned that there were realms beyond her ken.

The next day saw another meeting and the next yet another. Then there
was an intermission--Bragdon had to finish some work--and Milly felt
restless. But there ensued ten delicious days of music and beer-gardens
and walks in the parks, luncheons and suppers,--one starry Sunday spent
scrambling among the ravines on the north shore and picnicking on the
sandy beach, listening to the sadly soothing sweetness of Omar--(yes,
they read Omar in those days, the young did!)--with little opalescent
waves twinkling at their feet. Milly never paused to think one moment of
all those ten precious days. She was blissfully content with the world
as it was, except when she was at home, and then she was plotting
skilfully "another occasion." If she had stopped to think, she would
have murmured to herself, "At last! This must be the real, right thing!"

He was so han