d to provide an object
lesson as to the proper way of sitting upon it. Unfortunately, Desire
was not looking. They had come a little way "up trail"--at least Desire
had said it was a little way, and her companion was too proud of his
recovered powers of locomotion to express unkind doubt of the
adjective. There had been no rainy days for a week. The air was
sun-soaked, and salt-soaked, and somewhere there was a wind. But not
here. Here some high rock angle shut it out and left them to the drowsy
calm of wakening Summer. Below them lay the blue-green gulf,
white-flecked and gently heaving; above them bent a sky which only
Italy could rival--and if Miss Farr with her hands clasped round her
knees were to move ever so little, either way, there was nothing to
prevent her from falling off the face of the mountain. The professor
tried not to let this reflection spoil his enjoyment of the view. He
reminded him-self that she was probably much safer than she looked. And
he remembered Aunt Caroline. Still--

"Don't you think you might sit a little farther back?" he suggested
carelessly.

"Why?"

"I can't talk to the back of your head."

"Talk!" dreamily, "do you really have to talk?"

Naturally the professor was silent.

"That's rude, I suppose," said Desire, suddenly swinging round (a feat
which brought Spence's heart into his mouth). "I don't seem to acquire
the social graces very rapidly, do I?"

"I thought," the professor's tone was somewhat stiff, "that we came up
here for the express purpose of talking."

"Y-es. You did express some such purpose. But--must we? It won't do any
good, you know."

"I don't know. And it will do good. One can't get anywhere without
proper discussion."

The girl sighed. "Very well--let's discuss. You begin."

"My month," said Spence firmly, "is almost up. I shall have to move
along on Friday."

"On Friday?" If he had intended to startle her, he had certainly
succeeded. "Was--was the arrangement only for a month?" she asked in a
lowered voice.

"The arrangement was to continue for as long as I wished. But only one
month's payment was made in advance. With Friday, Dr. Farr's obligation
toward me ends. He is not likely to extend it."

She sat so still that he forgot how slippery the moss was and thought
only of the growing shadow on her face.

"But, the work!" she murmured. "We are only just beginning. I wish--oh,
I shall miss it dreadfully."

"'It,'" said Spence, "is not a per