fe was better than literature, and his
new-found love for her was poetry enough for him. He read so that he
might not talk to her or look at her, for it seemed to him at times as
though some second self in him would speak and betray him in spite of
his best efforts. Never before in all his life had he been so happy;
never before had he been so troubled. He began to jumble the lines and
words as he read, over-running periods, even turning two pages at once.

"What a splendid line!" Blix exclaimed.

"What line--what--what are you talking about? Blix, let's always
remember to-day. Let's make a promise, no matter what happens or where
we are, let's always write to each other on the anniversary of to-day.
What do you say?"

"Yes; I'll promise--and you--"

"I'll promise faithfully. Oh, I'll never forget to-day nor--yes, yes,
I'll promise--why, to-day--Blix--where's that damn book gone?"

"Condy!"

"Well, I can't find the book. You're sitting on it again. Confound
the book, anyway! Let's walk some more."

"We've a long ways to go if we're to get home in time for supper.
Let's go to Luna's for supper."

"I never saw such a girl as you to think of ways for spending money.
What kind of a purse-proud plutocrat do you think I am? I've only
seventy-five cents left. How much have you got?"

Blix had fifty-five cents in her purse, and they had a grave council
over their finances. They had just enough for car-fare and two
"suppers Mexican," with ten cents left over.

"That's for Richard's tip," said Blix.

"That's for my CIGAR," he retorted.

"You made ME give him fifty cents. You said it was the least I could
offer him--noblesse oblige."

"Well, then, I COULDN'T offer him a dime, don't you see? I'll tell him
we are broke this time."

They started home, not as they had come, but climbing the hill and
going across a breezy open down, radiant with blue iris, wild
heliotrope, yellow poppies, and even a violet here and there. A little
further on they gained one of the roads of the Reservation, red earth
smooth as a billiard table; and just at an angle where the road made a
sharp elbow and trended cityward, they paused for a moment and looked
down and back at the superb view of the ocean, the vast half-moon of
land, and the rolling hills in the foreground tumbling down toward the
beach and all spangled with wild flowers.

Some fifteen minutes later they reached the golf-links.

"We can go across the links,"