"

She looked at him with so long and steady a gaze that only her patent
absence of mind kept it from being a stare. Then, "I think I will go
for a walk by myself," she said.

"Sure, if you want to," he assented, "and I'll take a nap under this
magnolia tree. I've been working late nights, lately."

When she came back after an hour, the little inclosure was quite still,
and, walking over to the magnolia, she saw that the young man had
indeed fallen soundly asleep, one arm under his head, the other flung
wide, half buried in the grass. For a long time she looked down gravely
at the powerful body, at the large, sinewy hand, relaxed like a
sleeping child's, at the eagle-like face, touchingly softened by its
profound unconsciousness.

Suddenly the dark eyes opened wide into hers. The young man gave an
exclamation and sat up, startled. At this movement she looked away,
smoothing a fold of her skirt. He stared about him, still half-asleep.
"Did I hear somebody call?" he asked. "I must have had a very vivid
dream of some sort--I thought somebody was calling desperately to me.
You didn't speak, did you?"

"No," she answered softly, "I said nothing."

"Well, I hope you'll excuse me for being such poor company. I only
meant to take a cat-nap. I hope we won't be too late for the train."

He scrambled to his feet, his eyes still heavy with sleep, and pulled
out his watch. As he did this, Miss Midland began to speak very
rapidly. What she said was so astonishing to him that he forgot to put
back his watch, forgot even to look at it, and stood with it in his
hand, staring at her, with an expression as near to stupefaction as his
keen and powerful face could show.

When she finally stopped to draw breath, the painful breath of a person
who has been under water too long, he broke into baroque ejaculations,
"Well, wouldn't that _get_ you! Wouldn't that absolutely freeze you to
a pillar of salt! Well, of all the darndest idiots, I've been the----"
With Miss Midland's eyes fixed on him, he broke into peal after peal
of his new-world laughter, his fresh, crude, raw, inimitably vital
laughter, "I'm thinking of the time I loaned you the franc and a half
for your lunch, and hated to take it back because I thought you needed
it--and you rich enough to buy ten libraries to Andy's[137-1] one! Say,
how did you keep your face straight!"

Miss Midland apparently found no more difficulty in keeping a straight
face now than then. She did n