e. It
was only a little after nine when Madame, concealing a yawn, announced
that she was tired and would go to bed, if she might be excused.

Edith rose with alacrity. "I'll come, too," she said. "It's astonishing
how sleepy it makes one to be outdoors."

"Don't," Madame protested. "We mustn't leave him entirely alone. You can
sleep late to-morrow morning if you choose."

"Please don't leave me alone, Mrs. Lee," pleaded Alden, rather wickedly.

"All right," Edith answered, accepting the inevitable as gracefully as
she might. "Shall I play solitaire while you read the paper?"

"If you like," he replied.

Madame took her candle and bade them good-night. As she went up-stairs,
Edith said, with a pout: "I wish I were going to bed too."

"You can't sleep all the time," he reminded her. The paper had slipped
to the floor. "Mother tells me that you slept this morning until
half-past nine."

[Sidenote: The Souvenir of Rural Lovers]

"Yes--but--." She bit her lips and the colour rose to her temples. She
hastily shuffled the cards and began to play solitaire so rapidly that
he wondered whether she knew what cards she was playing.

"But," he said, "you didn't sleep well last night. Was that what you
were going to say?"

Edith dropped her cards, and looked him straight in the face. "I slept
perfectly," she lied. "Didn't you?"

"I slept just as well as you did," he answered. She thought she detected
a shade of double meaning in his tone.

"I had a long walk to-day," she went on, "and it made me sleepy. Look,"
she continued, going to the mantel where she had left the book. "See
what I found on top of a hill, in a crevice between an oak and a log
that lay against it. Do you think some pair of rural lovers left it
there?"

"Possibly," he replied. If the sight of the book he had loaned Rosemary
awoke any emotion, or even a memory, he did not show it. "Sit down," he
suggested, imperturbably, "and let me see if I can't find a sonnet that
fits you. Yes, surely--here it is. Listen."

She rested her head upon her hand and turned her face away from him. In
his smooth, well-modulated voice, he read:

[Sidenote: Alden Reads a Sonnet]

HER GIFTS

High grace, the dower of queens; and therewithal
Some wood-born wonder's sweet simplicity;
A glance like water brimming with the sky
Or hyacinth-light where forest shadows fall;
Such thrilling pallor of cheek as doth enthral
The heart; a mouth whos