please go off and let me clear up and pack away. That's always
the woman's part. Couldn't you lie down on that inviting carpet of
needles over there under the big pine and get a bit of sleep?"

"Sleep--when I can talk to you?"

She nodded. "Yes, indeed. I'm not going to talk just now, anyhow, so you
might as well make the best of it. Throw yourself down with your hands
under your head, and look up at those beautiful boughs. Please!"

Rather reluctantly he obeyed, and she could see that, weary as he
undoubtedly still was in spite of the refreshing meal, he really did not
want to lose any of her society. Lying at full length on his side,
his head propped on his hand, talking in the lazy tone of after-dinner
content which had descended upon him, he continued to watch her as she
repacked the hamper. It was not until she deliberately forsook him that
he gave up to her wishes. But when, having been out of his sight for ten
minutes, she peered cautiously through the bushes behind which she had
screened herself, she saw what she had hoped for. His whole weary frame
was stretched upon the pine-needle carpet, the lines of his face were
relaxed, and his eyes fast shut.

The sun was far down the hills when he awoke. He lay blinking at the
low-sweeping boughs above him for a little without realizing where he
was; then, as the midsummer stillness which surrounded him took hold of
his senses, he turned his head to recall to himself the conditions under
which he had been sleeping. Only the hamper under a tree close by
gave evidence that he was here by his own volition. He stared about,
remembering that he had had a companion. He got somewhat stiffly to his
feet, discovering as he did so that he had lain for a long time without
stirring from the position in which slumber had overtaken him.

"Mrs. Lessing!" he called.

From some distance away came back a blithe answer: "Here, Doctor
Burns!"

He started in the direction of the voice and presently came upon her
sitting on a big granite boulder, busy with a lapful of pine cones
out of which she seemed to be constructing something. She looked up,
smiling.

"Why in the world did you let me sleep all the afternoon?" he reproached
her.

"I should have wakened you in ten minutes more. Have I made you late
for your work? I understood that you could afford a few hours for rest.
You've only slept three."

"Three! Good heavens! When I might have been spending them with you!"

He looke