my life to obey my whims. Whatever occurs to me as
a possibly pleasant thing to do, straight like a hash, I go and do it.
It is the only way that a person with means, with plenty of money, can
preserve any freshness of character. If they stop to think what it would
be prudent to do, they get crusted over immediately. That is the curse
of rich people--they teach themselves to distrust and restrain every
impulse toward unusual actions. They get to feel that it is more
necessary for them to be cautious and conventional than it is for
others. I would rather work at a wash-tub than occupy that attitude
toward my bank account. I fight against any sign of it that I detect
rising in my mind. The instant a wish occurs to me, I rush to gratify
it. That is my theory of life. That accounts for the piano; and I don't
see that you've anything to say about it at all."

It seemed very convincing, this theory of life. Somehow, the thought
of Miss Madden's riches had never before assumed prominence in Theron's
mind. Of course her father was very wealthy, but it had not occurred
to him that the daughter's emancipation might run to the length of a
personal fortune. He knew so little of rich people and their ways!

He lifted his head, and looked up at Celia with an awakened humility and
awe in his glance. The glamour of a separate banking-account shone upon
her. Where the soft woodland light played in among the strands of her
disordered hair, he saw the veritable gleam of gold. A mysterious new
suggestion of power blended itself with the beauty of her face, was
exhaled in the faint perfume of her garments. He maintained a timorous
hold upon the ribbon, wondering at his hardihood in touching it, or
being near her at all.

"What surprises me," he heard himself saying, "is that you are
contented to stay in Octavius. I should think that you would travel--go
abroad--see the beautiful things of the world, surround yourself with
the luxuries of big cities--and that sort of thing."

Celia regarded the forest prospect straight in front of her with
a pensive gaze. "Sometime--no doubt I will sometime," she said
abstractedly.

"One reads so much nowadays," he went on, "of American heiresses going
to Europe and marrying dukes and noblemen. I suppose you will do that
too. Princes would fight one another for you."

The least touch of a smile softened for an instant the impassivity of
her countenance. Then she stared harder than ever at the vague, le