e you looking
for?'

'Why I don't know, sir. If I knew,--it would be half found
already, wouldn't it?' said the girl.

'But my dear--did Mr. Falkirk never tell you that fortunes are
never found ready made?'

'He objected, because he said mine was ready made--but that
made no difference from my point of view. And then he said he
thought our road would "end in a squirrel track, and run up a
tree." And do you know, sir,' said Wych Hazel, the hidden
merriment flashing out all over her face, 'that was what it
really did!'

'Did what, my dear?'

'I beg your pardon, sir,' she said, trying to steady her voice
and bring out words instead of a burst of laughter,--'but--that
is a wild Western expression, which Mr. Falkirk used to
signify that we should get into difficulties.'

'Why did Mr. Falkirk think you would get into difficulties?'--
Dr. Maryland had not found the scent yet.

'I don't think he has much opinion of my prudence, sir,--and
believes firmly that every one who goes off the highway finds
rough ground. Now I like a jolt now and then--it wakes one up.'

'Do you want to find rough ground, my dear?'

'I don't mean really rough, sir, in one sense, but uneven--
varied, and stirring, and uncommonplace. It seems to me that I
have a whole set of energies that never come into play upon
ordinary occasions. I should weary to death of the lives some
people lead--three meals a day, and a cigar, and a newspaper. I
think I should fast once a week, for variety--and smoke my
cigar wrong end first--if there are two ends to it.'

'I heard a lady say the other day, that there was no end to
them,'--observed Rollo.

Dr. Maryland looked at her on his part, smiling, and quite
awake now to the matter in hand. Yet he was silent a minute
before speaking.

'Have you laid your plan, my dear? I should very much like to
know what it is!'

'No, sir,' she said, shaking her head with a deprecatory
little laugh. 'Of course I have not! People in fairy tales
never do.'

'Life is not a fairy tale, Hazel,' said Dr. Maryland, shaking
his head a little. 'My dear, you are a real woman. Did you
ever think what you would try to do in the world?--what you
would try to do with your life, I mean?'

'Do with it?' the girl repeated, her brown eyes on the
Doctor's face as if looking for his meaning. 'I think, I
should like to enjoy it, if I could. And it has been very
commonplace, lately, sir. Mr. Falkirk don't pet me and play
with me as he