tell me what it is that troubles you?"

Margery looked at him with her clear, large eyes. "I'll tell you," she
said, "if you will promise not to do a single thing without my
permission."

"I promise that," said Clyde, eagerly.

"I am troubled by people making love to me."

"People!" exclaimed Clyde, with a puzzled air.

"Yes," said she. "Your cousin is one of them."

"I might have supposed that; but who on earth can be the other one?"

"That is Martin," said Margery.

For a moment Mr. Clyde did not seem to understand, and then he exclaimed:
"You don't mean the young man who cuts wood and helps Matlack?"

"Yes, I do," she answered. "And you need not shut your jaw hard and grit
your teeth that way. That is exactly what he did when he found out about
Mr. Raybold. It is of no use to get angry, for you can't do anything
without my permission; and, besides, I tell you that if I were condemned
by a court to be made love to, I would much rather have Martin make it
than Mr. Raybold. Martin is a good deal more than a guide; he has a good
education, and would not be here if it were not for his love of nature. He
is going to make nature his object in life, and there is something noble
in that; a great deal better than trying to strut about on the stage."

"And those two have really been making love to you?" asked Clyde.

"Yes, really," she answered. "You never saw people more in earnest in all
your life. As for Mr. Raybold, he was as earnest as a cat after a bird. He
made me furiously angry. Martin was different. He is just as earnest, but
he is more of a gentleman; and when I told him what I wanted him to do, he
said he would do it. But there is no use in telling your cousin what I
want him to do. He is determined to persecute me and make me miserable,
and there is no way of stopping it, except by making a quarrel between him
and Uncle Archibald. It is a shame!" she went on, "Who could have thought
that two people would have turned up to disturb me in this way."

"Margery," said Mr. Clyde, and although he called her by her Christian
name she took no notice of it, "you think you have too many lovers: but
you are mistaken. You have not enough; you ought to have three."

She looked at him inquiringly.

"Yes," he said, quickly, "and I want to be the third."

"And so make matters three times as bad as they were at first?" she
asked.

"Not at all," said he. "When you have chosen one of them, he could easily
keep away