hope was not to be gratified nor his half-dread realized.
The girl was different, but the intervening months had done their work
well. She seemed older and more mature, yet this passing of the girl
into womanhood had been accomplished without marring those
characteristics which he had before admired. His eyes rested on her face
longer than he realized, as these thoughts passed through his mind, but
until she spoke he had no idea that she had noticed the closeness of his
scrutiny.

"Well," she said smiling, "do you approve?"

He made no apology, for they understood each other too well, but instead
accepted her question seriously.

"Entirely," he replied with an air of sincerity which forced the color
into her face. "The expression of the mouth, the tilt of the head, the
sparkle in the eyes,--all is perfection. But you suggested that we
imagine ourselves back in Bermuda. For myself, I should not dare to try
it, for it could never be the same."

"Should we want it to be?" she asked earnestly. "An experience repeated
must have something added or it fails to satisfy. To be the same would
bring disappointment. I've argued that all out with myself, so I'm sure
I'm right."

"Why should you have done that?" he demanded.

"Because those were the most wonderful days I have ever known," she
explained simply and without embarrassment. "I found myself wishing them
back; then I realized that if I could have my wish gratified it wouldn't
satisfy me. I was unhappy when I went down there for no reason in the
world except that I couldn't seem to find my place. With all their love
no one at home has ever understood me, and I had reached a point where I
didn't understand myself. Then you gave me the chance to know Mr.
Hamlen, and in what you said to him and to me I saw what happens when
one has no anchorage. That was what had made me unhappy,--I was drifting
horribly."

"You concealed it well," Huntington said. "All the time we were together
I never suspected that you had a care in the world."

"That is a compliment to yourself," the girl answered. "With your
optimism you draw out the best in every one. See what you did with Mr.
Hamlen down there, and what you have done with him since! You are the
most completely happy person I have ever met, and--don't scold!--I have
tried to imitate you. I haven't been very successful yet, but I'm
trying. Some time, when the supreme test comes, I shall accept it, and
then you will see what your