shed him downstairs and he just
got up and limped away.

"Mother was--well, a little startled," continued Kismine, "when she
heard that you were from--from where you _are_ from, you know.
She said that when she was a young girl--but then, you see, she's a
Spaniard and old-fashioned."

"Do you spend much time out here?" asked John, to conceal the fact
that he was somewhat hurt by this remark. It seemed an unkind allusion
to his provincialism.

"Percy and Jasmine and I are here every summer, but next summer
Jasmine is going to Newport. She's coming out in London a year from
this fall. She'll be presented at court."

"Do you know," began John hesitantly, "you're much more sophisticated
than I thought you were when I first saw you?"

"Oh, no, I'm not," she exclaimed hurriedly. "Oh, I wouldn't think of
being. I think that sophisticated young people are _terribly_
common, don't you? I'm not all, really. If you say I am, I'm going to
cry."

She was so distressed that her lip was trembling. John was impelled to
protest:

"I didn't mean that; I only said it to tease you."

"Because I wouldn't mind if I _were_," she persisted, "but I'm
not. I'm very innocent and girlish. I never smoke, or drink, or read
anything except poetry. I know scarcely any mathematics or chemistry.
I dress _very_ simply--in fact, I scarcely dress at all. I think
sophisticated is the last thing you can say about me. I believe that
girls ought to enjoy their youths in a wholesome way."

"I do, too," said John, heartily,

Kismine was cheerful again. She smiled at him, and a still-born tear
dripped from the comer of one blue eye.

"I like you," she whispered intimately. "Are you going to spend all
your time with Percy while you're here, or will you be nice to me?
Just think--I'm absolutely fresh ground. I've never had a boy in love
with me in all my life. I've never been allowed even to _see_
boys alone--except Percy. I came all the way out here into this grove
hoping to run into you, where the family wouldn't be around."

Deeply flattered, John bowed from the hips as he had been taught at
dancing school in Hades.

"We'd better go now," said Kismine sweetly. "I have to be with mother
at eleven. You haven't asked me to kiss you once. I thought boys
always did that nowadays."

John drew himself up proudly.

"Some of them do," he answered, "but not me. Girls don't do that sort
of thing--in Hades."

Side by side they walked back toward the h