t is a symbol of mutation. The marshlands have been
filled in; streets extend across the places where I used to go for
cat-tails; they have no more batrachian concerts there now. The only
reminder of that earlier characteristic of the place is a huge green
frog worked out in a marble mosaic on the floor of the new court house.
That is the seal of my native town."

By mere accident Leigh had made that first important step in love's
progress; he had succeeded in arousing a personal interest.

"It's quite charming," she commented, "and not lacking in an element of
poetry, either."

"Poetry," he echoed, inspired by her appreciation. "It's just those
apparently common things that are so full of it, but the poets don't
see it, or else they don't quite dare to give it expression. The
conventions of the art are too overpowering. Take the railroad train,
for example, which stands to most of us for convenience combined with a
certain measure of discomfort. There 's nothing more stimulating to
the imagination than the whistle of a locomotive in the distance at
night, though perhaps only the poor, to whom travel is a luxury,
appreciate to the full its invitation and the suggestion of adventure.
Working up from one stratum to another through difficulties, they are
attended by a growing wonder as the world expands before them. But to
have all experiences open to you from the first by the power of wealth,
such as travel and theatres, for example, is the real misfortune of
birth. The curiosity of the rich is gratified before it is stimulated
by denial. Then what is left to them?"

"Ennui," she answered simply.

"What a blessing it is, then," he went on, "to have no time for that
emotion, or rather, lack of emotion. I believe that if I had been born
rich, I should have been ruined long before this; but I set myself a
long road to travel, a road that reaches, in fact"--he made a wide
upward gesture--"to the stars."

"Now what is it," he continued, after a pause, "that makes Warwick so
uninspiring, in spite of its obvious charm? Is n't it the spiritual
stagnation that comes with wealth and aristocracy? One reads it in the
very faces of the people, and recognises it in the things they think
worth while. It doesn't need a long observation to discover this. A
stranger takes in the impression with his first breath here. Like the
first glance at a new face, it reveals the truth. Afterward you get
accustomed to an unprepo