f one she knew. I lifted my hat and
waved it on high until she saw. A beautiful smile lighted her face and
straight over the heads of the people she blew me a kiss----"

[Illustration: "'I was seeing a vision, little pal'"]

The tiniest frown clouded the girl's brow.

"Who was she, Jim?"

"One who shall yet sing before Kings and Princes--I call her
'Sunshine'--her name is Harriet Woodman."

With a sigh of relief she threw herself back in the big armchair in a
pose of natural grace, her lips twitched, the golden head tipped to one
side thoughtfully, and he waited for her to speak.

"But, Jim, suppose I'm not ambitious? Suppose I'm just a silly little
home body who only wishes to be loved?"

"And so you will be loved. They will come in troops--these
lovers--serious and gay, and fall at your feet----"

"But if I only want one--and he is not there--they will tire me, won't
they?"

"When I see those two dimples come into your cheeks now and then I
think you will enjoy it."

"Perhaps I would."

The head nodded in quick friendly understanding. She raised her arms
and touched the bow of ribbon on her luxuriant hair with another
suggestion of coquetry, quickly lowered them, drew the short skirt down
further over her knees, gazed thoughtfully at Stuart, and with a
quizzical look in her eyes asked:

"How old do you think a girl must be to really and deeply and truly
love, Jim?"

Stuart's brow contracted and he took her hand in his, stroked it
tenderly and studied the beautiful lines as they melted from the firmly
shaped wrist into the rounded arm and gracefully moulded body.

"I'm afraid you've asked a bigger question than I can answer, dear," he
said, with serious accent. "I've been wondering lately whether the
world hasn't lost the secret of happy mating and marrying. A more
beautiful even life I have never seen than the one in the home of my
childhood. Yet my mother was only fourteen and my father twenty-one
when they were married. You see, dear, that was in the old days when
boys and girls were not afraid--when love dared to laugh at cares about
houses and lands and goods and chattels, when Nature claimed her own,
when the voices of the deepest impulses of our bodies and souls were
heard first and the chatterings about careers and social triumphs were
left to settle themselves. Now folks only allow themselves to marry in
cold blood, calculating with accuracy their bank accounts. My mother
had been married si