she laid her warm hand with a
sudden grip on his.

"To a certain peak among the clouds, where you and I once went a
thousand years ago."

Nan nestled a little closer--or perhaps it was the swaying of the coach
that made him think she did--and softly said:

"You remember this road?"

"I've seen it a hundred times in my dreams since that wonderful day. It
winds along the banks of the Swannanoa for twenty miles, always
climbing higher and higher until the river becomes a limpid trout
stream. We stop at the old road-house, stay all night, and next morning
take the bridle path with the funny pack-horses and climb to the first
mountain top, still following the little stream. We stoop to drink from
the spring which is the river's source--a deep bold spring hung with
long festoons of green moss and set with ferns and rhododendron----"

"Fine, Jimmy, fine!" she cried with girlish mockery. "Your geography
lesson was perfect! You can walk home with me after school."

Stuart looked at her and broke into a laugh. Again they were boy and
girl, and the only change he could see was that she was more splendidly
beautiful at thirty-one than she had ever promised to be at fifteen.

The spirit of joy was resistless. He flung to the winds the last shred
of conventional dignity as the coach rolled lazily over the rocky road,
throwing them from side to side.

"You remember how shocked you were in this same seat, Jim, that day in
the sweet long ago when the old coach threw me into your arms?"

"Yes, I felt that I was taking a mean advantage of you."

"I blushed furiously, didn't I?"

"Yes, and I wonder now what your real thoughts were; you don't
remember, I suppose?"

"As distinctly as though it were yesterday," Nan answered, dreamily.

"What did you think of my embarrassment?"

"I thought you were an awful fool not to accept more gracefully and
thankfully the providence which threw a pretty girl your way."

The coach gave a sudden lurch and threw her into Stuart's arms again.

"And now?" he cried, laughingly, as he held her firmly for a moment, to
prevent her falling.

She blushed furiously, threw the ringlets of dark hair from her face
and drew back to her position.

"Now, of course, it's unlawful," she answered with sober playfulness.

The man watched her slyly for the next half-mile. She was very, very
quiet. Was he mistaken in the idea that her body had trembled with
unusual violence for the moment he had held her?