hiff of your
big mountain air," he said.

"I hope I always will be," Betty replied softly and earnestly, "I must
keep--free, no matter what happens. I must keep what I am, or how can I
expect to keep--Brace? He loved _this_ me. Marriage doesn't perform a
miracle, does it--Conning? please let me call you that. Lynda has told
me how she and you believe in two lives, not one narrow little life.
It's splendid. And now I am going to tell you another secret. I'll have
to let Lynda in on this, too, she must help me. I have a little money of
my very own--I earned every cent of it. I am going to buy a tiny bit of
ground, I've picked it out--it's across the river in the woods. I'm
going to build a house, not much of a one, a very small one, and I'm
going to call it--The Refuge. When I cannot find myself, when I get
lost, after I'm married, and am trying to be everything to Brace, I'm
going to run away to--The Refuge!" The blue eyes were shining "And
nobody can come there, not even Brace, except by invitation. I
think"--very softly--"I think all women should have a--a Refuge."

Truedale found himself impressed. "You're a very wise little woman," he
said.

"One has to be, sometimes," came the slow words. And at that moment all
doubt of Betty's serious-mindedness departed.

Brace joined them presently. He looked as if he had been straining at a
leash since dinner time.

"Con," he said, laying his hand on the light head bending over the dog,
"now that you have talked and laughed with Betty, what have you got to
say?"

"Congratulations, Ken, with all my heart."

"And now, Betty"--there was a new tone in Kendall's voice--"Mollie has
said you may walk back with me. The taxi would stifle us. There's a
moon, dear, and a star or two--"

"As if that mattered!" Betty broke in. "I'm very, very happy. Brace,
you've got a nice, sensible family. They agree with me in everything."

The weeks passed rapidly. Betty's affairs absorbed them all, though she
laughingly urged them to leave her alone.

"It's quite awful enough to feel yourself being carried along by a
deluge," she jokingly said, "without hearing the cheers from the banks."

But Mollie Morrell flung herself heart and soul into the arranging of
the wardrobe--playing big sister for the first and only time in her
life. She was older than Betty, but the younger girl had always swayed
the elder.

And Lynda became fascinated with the little bungalow across the river,
known as Th