ch an intimacy unless he were?" She
smiled herself off, leaving Mrs. Yorke fuming.

"That woman is always sticking pins into people," she said to herself.
But this pin had stuck fast, and Mrs. Yorke was in quite a panic.

Mrs. Yorke determined to talk to Alice on the first occasion that
offered itself; but she would not do it too abruptly. All that would be
needed would be a hint judiciously given. For surely a girl of such
sound sense as Alice, a girl brought up so wisely, could not for a
moment think of acting so foolishly. And really Mrs. Yorke felt that she
herself was very fond of this young man. She might do something for
him--something that should be of use to him in after life. At first this
plan took the form in her mind of getting her husband to give him a
place; but she reflected that this would necessitate bringing him where
his acquaintance with them might prove inconvenient. She would aid him
in going to college for another year. This would be a delicate way to
discharge the obligation under which his kindness had placed her.

Keith, meantime, was happily ignorant of the plot that was forming
against him. The warm weather was coming, and he knew that before long
Mrs. Yorke and Alice would be flitting northward. However, he would make
his hay while the sun shone for him. So one afternoon Keith had borne
Miss Alice off to his favorite haunt, the high rock in the Ridge woods.
He was in unusual spirits; for he had escaped from Mrs. Nailor, who of
late had appeared to be rather lying in wait for him. It was the spot he
loved best; for the pines behind him seemed to shut out the rest of the
world, and he felt that here he was in some sort nearer to having Alice
for his own than anywhere else. It was here that he had caught that
glimpse of her heart which he felt had revealed her to him.

This afternoon he was talking of love and of himself; for what young man
who talks of love talks not of himself? She was dressed in white, and a
single red rose that he had given her was stuck in her dress. He had
been reading a poem to her. It contained a picture of the goddess of
love, decked out for "worship without end." The book now lay at his
side, and he was stretched at her feet.

"If I ever am in love," he said suddenly, "it will be with a girl who
must fill full the measure of my dreams." He was looking away through
the pine-trees to the sky far beyond; but the soft light in his face
came not from that far-off tent