country?"

"I will not say that. But I have the misfortune to be a rather idle man,
and in Europe the burden of idleness is less heavy than here."

She was silent for a few minutes; then at last, "In that, then, we are
better than Europe," she said. To a certain point Rowland agreed with
her, but he demurred, to make her say more.

"Would n't it be better," she asked, "to work to get reconciled to
America, than to go to Europe to get reconciled to idleness?"

"Doubtless; but you know work is hard to find."

"I come from a little place where every one has plenty," said Miss
Garland. "We all work; every one I know works. And really," she added
presently, "I look at you with curiosity; you are the first unoccupied
man I ever saw."

"Don't look at me too hard," said Rowland, smiling. "I shall sink into
the earth. What is the name of your little place?"

"West Nazareth," said Miss Garland, with her usual sobriety. "It is not
so very little, though it 's smaller than Northampton."

"I wonder whether I could find any work at West Nazareth," Rowland said.

"You would not like it," Miss Garland declared reflectively. "Though
there are far finer woods there than this. We have miles and miles of
woods."

"I might chop down trees," said Rowland. "That is, if you allow it."

"Allow it? Why, where should we get our firewood?" Then, noticing that
he had spoken jestingly, she glanced at him askance, though with no
visible diminution of her gravity. "Don't you know how to do anything?
Have you no profession?"

Rowland shook his head. "Absolutely none."

"What do you do all day?"

"Nothing worth relating. That 's why I am going to Europe. There, at
least, if I do nothing, I shall see a great deal; and if I 'm not a
producer, I shall at any rate be an observer."

"Can't we observe everywhere?"

"Certainly; and I really think that in that way I make the most of my
opportunities. Though I confess," he continued, "that I often remember
there are things to be seen here to which I probably have n't done
justice. I should like, for instance, to see West Nazareth."

She looked round at him, open-eyed; not, apparently, that she exactly
supposed he was jesting, for the expression of such a desire was not
necessarily facetious; but as if he must have spoken with an ulterior
motive. In fact, he had spoken from the simplest of motives. The girl
beside him pleased him unspeakably, and, suspecting that her charm
was essentially he