as the breaking of
it. Unless he did it merely to oblige her--and men are such idiots
sometimes,--then he must have fancied he was in love with her. Perhaps
he is continually troubled with those fancies. Nonsense! you believe
in him, and you know you do." Then aloud she said, sympathetically,
"I'm afraid we are apt to make these little experimental journeys in
youth, when the heart is full of _wanderlust_. We start out on them so
lightly, then they lead nowhere, and the walking back alone is
wearisome and depressing."

"My return journey was depressing enough at first," said Lavendar,
"because the particular She was unkinder to me than I deserved even;
but better counsels have prevailed and I shall soon be able to meet
the reproachful gaze of stout matrons and sour spinsters more easily
than I have for a year past; you see the two families were friends and
each family had a large and interested connection!"

"If the opinion of a comparative stranger is of any use to you," said
Robinette, standing on the rock and scraping her stockinged foot free
of mud, "_I_ believe in you, personally! You don't seem a bit 'jilty'
to me! I'd let you marry my sister to-morrow and no questions asked!"

"I didn't know you had a sister," cried Lavendar.

"I haven't; that's only a figure of speech; just a phrase to show my
confidence."

"And isn't it ungrateful to be obliged to say I can't marry your
sister, after you have given me permission to ask her!"

"Not only ungrateful but unreasonable," said Robinette saucily,
turning her head to look up the river and discovering from her point
of vantage a moving object around the curve that led her to make
hazardous remarks, knowing rescue was not far away. "What have you
against my sister, pray?"

"Very little!" he said daringly, knowing well that she held him in her
hand, and could make him dumb or let him speak at any moment she
desired. "Almost nothing! only that _she_ is not offering me _her_
sister as a balm to my woes."

"She _has_ no sister; she is an only child!--There! there!" cried
Robinette, "the tide is coming up again, and the mud banks off in that
direction are all covered with water! I see somebody in a boat, rowing
towards us with superhuman energy. Oh! if I hadn't worn a white dress!
It will _not_ come smooth; and my lovely French hat is ruined by the
dampness! My one shoe shows how inappropriately I was shod, and
whoever is coming will say it is because I am an Americ