ard, the real laurels
that he craved--Ah! they lay in another direction.

Middle July is a lovely time to get off among the trees and grass, and lie
around in white flannels or white muslins, just as the case may be. It was
too warm to do much else than that, and Heaven knows that Jack desired
nothing better, as long as his goddess smiled upon him.

It was curious about his goddess. She seemed to grow more beautiful every
time that he saw her. Perhaps it was her native air that gave her that
charming flush; perhaps it was the joy of being at home again; perhaps it
was--no, he didn't dare to hope that. Not yet. Not even with all that she
had done for him fresh in his memory. The humility of true love was so
heavy on his heart that his very dreams were dulled with hopelessness, the
majority of them seeming too vividly dyed in Paradise hues for their
fulfillment in daily life to ever appear possible. But still he was very,
very happy to be there with her--beside her--and to hear her voice and look
into her eyes whenever the trouble some "other people" would leave them
alone together. And she did seem happy, too. And so rejoiced that the tide
of Aunt Mary's wrath had been successfully turned. And so rejoiced that he
was at work, even in the face of her hopes as to his college career. And
also so rejoiced to take up the gay, careless thread of their mutual
pleasure again.

The morning after the gathering of the party was Saturday and an ideal
day--that sort of ideal day when house parties naturally sift into pairs
and then fade away altogether. The country surrounding our particular
party was densely wooded and not at all settled, the woods were laid out
in a fascinating system of walks and benches which in no case commanded
views of one another, and the shade overhead was the shade of July and as
propitious to rest as it was to motion. Mitchell took a girl in gray and
two sets of golf clubs and started out in the opposite direction from the
links, Clover took a girl in green and a camera and went another way,
Burnett took a girl in a riding habit and two saddle horses and followed
the horses' noses whither they led, and Jack--Jack smoked cigarettes on the
piazza and waited--waited.

Mrs. Rosscott came out after a while and asked him why he didn't go to
walk also.

"Just what I was thinking as to yourself," he said, very boldly as to
voice, and very beseechingly as to eyes.

"Oh, I'm so busy," she said, laughing up int