Back at the church he watched with intense satisfaction Miss Anne
Linton's descent of the dusty steps. The September sunshine was
hazily bright, the air was warmly caressing, and there were several
hours ahead containing such an opportunity as he had not yet had to
try at finding out the things he had wanted to know. Not this girl's
circumstances--though he should be interested in that topic--not any
affairs of hers which she should not choose to tell him; but the future
relationship between herself and him--this was what he must establish
upon some sort of a definite basis, if it were possible.

Out through the crowded streets into the suburbs, on beyond these to the
open country, the car took its way with as much haste as was compatible
with necessary caution. Once on the open road, however, and well away,
King paid small attention to covering distance. Indeed, when they had
reached a certain wooded district, picturesque after the fashion of the
semi-mountainous country of that part of the state, he let his car idle
after a fashion most unaccustomed with him, who was usually principally
concerned with getting from one place to another with the least possible
waste of time.

And now he and Anne Linton were talking as they never had had the chance
to talk before, and they were exploring each other's minds with the zest
of those who have many tastes in common. King was confirming that of
which he had been convinced by her letters, that she was thoroughly
educated, and that she had read and thought along lines which had
intensely interested him ever since he had reached the thinking age. To
his delight he found that she could hold her own in an argument with as
close reasoning, as logical deduction, as keen interpretation, as any
young man he knew. And with it all she showed a certain quality of
appreciation of his own side of the question which especially pleased
him, because it proved that she possessed that most desirable power,
rare among those of her sex as he knew them--the ability to hold herself
free from undue bias.

Yet she proved herself a very girl none the less by suddenly crying out
at sight of certain tall masses of shell-pink flowers growing by the
roadside in a shady nook, and by insisting on getting out to pick them
for herself.

"It's so much more fun," she asserted, "to choose one's own than to
watch a man picking all the poorest blossoms and leaving the very best."

"Is that what we do?" King as