riment proposition is about
to become compound quadratics.

Then I got a still further surprise.

"I wouldn't in the least mind telling Mr. James how I like him--if you
think it is all right," Nell mused, looking pensively at the first pale
star that was rising over Old Harpeth. "I would enjoy it, because I
have always adored him, and it would be so interesting to see what he'd
say."

"Nell," I said suddenly with determination, "do it! Tell any man you
like how much you like him--and see what happens."

"I feel as if--as if"--Nell faltered and I don't blame her; I wouldn't
have said as much to her--"I feel that to tell Mr. James I love _him_
would ease the pain, the--pain--that I feel about Polk. It would be so
interesting to tell a man a thing like that."

"Do it!" I gasped, and went foot in the class in romantics.

If any jungle explorer thinks he has mapped and charted a woman's heart
he had better pack up his instruments of warfare and recorders and come
down to Glendale, Tennessee.

Nell and I must have talked further along the same lines, but I don't
remember what we said. I have recorded the high lights on the
conversation, but long after I lost her I kept my whirlwind feeling of
amazement. It was like trying to balance calmly on the lid of the
tinder-box when you didn't know whether or not you had touched off the
fuse.

Has honeysuckle-garbed Old Harpeth been seeing things like this go on
for centuries and not interrupted? I think I would have been sitting
there questioning him until now, if Lee and Caroline hadn't stopped at
the gate and called to me.

I think Lee was giving Caroline this stroll home from the post-office in
the twilight as an extra treat in her week's allowance of him, and she
was so soft and glowing and sweet and pale that I wonder the Cherokee
roses on my hedge didn't droop their heads with humility before her.

"What's a lovely lady doing sitting all by herself in the gloaming?" Lee
asked in his rich, warm voice.

I hate him!

"Come take a walk with us, Evelina, dear," Caroline begged softly,
though I knew what it would mean to her if I should intrude on this
precious hour with her near-lover.

Please, God--if I seem to be calling You into a profane situation I
can't help it; I must have help!--show me some way to assist Caroline to
make Lee into a real man and then get him for herself. She must have him
and he needs her. And show me a way quick! Amen!

Jane, I hope you wi