at down
without comment.

"Not unlike a rock I remember up in the foothills," he remarked, after a
silence.

"Oh, you remember that? It WAS like this, wasn't it?"

"Same two people sitting on it."

".... Yes."

"Not like this, though."

"No.... You're mean. You know I didn't intend to fall asleep."

"Of course not. Still...."

His voice lingered on it as though it were a delightful remembrance.

She found herself holding one of her hands in the other. She could feel
the pressure of Transley's ring on her palm, and she held it tighter
still.

"Riding anywhere in particular?" he inquired.

"No. Just mooning." She looked up at him again, this time at close
quarters. It was a quick, bright flash on his face--a moment only.

"Why mooning?"

She did not answer. Looking down in the water he met her gaze there.

"You're troubled!" he exclaimed.

"Oh, no! My--my ankle hurts a little."

He looked at her sympathetically. "But not that much," he said.

She gave a forced little laugh. "What a mind reader you are! Can you
tell my fortune?"

"I should have to read it in your hand."

She would have extended her hand, but for Transley's ring.

"No.... No. You'll have to read it in--in the stars."

"Then look at me." She did so, innocently.

"I cannot read it there," he said, after his long gaze had begun to whip
the color to her cheeks. "There is no answer."

She turned again to the water, and after a long while she heard his
voice, very low and earnest.

"Zen, I could read a fortune for you, if you would not be offended. We
are only chance acquaintances--not very well acquainted, yet--"

She knew what he meant, but she pretended she did not. Even in that
moment something came to her of Transley's speech about love being a
game of pretence. Very well, she would play the game--this once.

"I don't see how I could be offended at your reading my fortune," she
murmured.

"Then this is the fortune I would read for you," he said boldly. "I see
a young man, a rather foolish young man, perhaps, by ordinary standards,
and yet one who has found a great deal of happiness in his simple,
unconventional life. Until a short time ago he felt that life could give
him all the happiness that was worth having. He had health, strength,
hours of work and hours of pleasure, the fields, the hills, the
mountains, the sky--all God's open places to live in and enjoy. He
thought there was nothing more.

"Well, then he found, a