permanently? Gunhild likes this place so much. She's perfectly charmed
with it."

"Which question shall I answer first?"

"Did I ask more than one? I haven't seen you in so long that I must
rattle on at a fearful rate."

"I don't expect to live here permanently."

"Not if she should request it?"

"She will not request it. Our arrangements are not yet quite clear
enough for such requests."

"Indeed? I fancied that it was all understood."

"It is, in a way, but we must have a very serious talk before there can
be--be----"

"Anything definite," she suggested. "Yes, I understand. But this serious
talk? How can that change your plans or have any bearing upon them?"

"That is for her to decide. I had a certain object in view before she
entered into any of my calculations."

"Dear me, we are as far apart as ever. You must know that I dote upon
that girl, and that consequently I am interested in you. But I needn't
tell you this. You know it already."

"Yes, and I am grateful."

"But you will give me no hint as to what your object is. Don't you think
I ought to know it?"

"She doesn't know it yet."

"But you must have told her something."

"A little, and she didn't urge me to tell her more."

"Do I deserve that reproach? I hope not. Really, she and you present a
singular romance."

"It is not a romance; it's only a sort of understanding."

"But you say there is no perfect understanding. Oh, a sort of romance. I
see. Well, you will make her a good husband and consequently a good
living."

A vision of the Professor as he had sat amid his shifting toasts to
woman arose before Milford. "Good husband, I hope; and a good living, I
am determined," he said.

"You couldn't have made a better reply, Mr. Milford, if you had pondered
a week. You are quite happy at times. It was voted last summer that you
had good blood, and you must have it still," she added with a smile.
"Although you call yourself a Westerner, you are really from the East, I
believe."

"Yes, but to live in the West soon rubs out the marks of all sections."

"True enough, I suppose. But do you expect to go back there?"

"Yes, but I don't know how long I'll stay. I may run out and come
straight back. I can't tell. It all depends."

"Upon Gunhild's decision?"

"Not wholly. The fact is I can't explain myself. Oh, I could," he
added, observing her wondering eye, "but I serve my purpose best by----"

"By showing that you have no confidence in