anks beside the road; conscious of the whispering
pine needles in a wood they passed; the fluttering chatter of leaves and
silver flash of the lining of poplar leaves, where tall trees stood like
sentinels, apart and sad; conscious of a little brook that tinkled under a
log bridge they crossed, then hurried on its way unmindful of their happy
crossing; conscious of the dusty daisy beside the road, closing with a
bumbling bee who wanted honey below the market price; conscious of all
these things; but most conscious of each other, close, side by side.

It was all so dear, that ride, and over so soon. Marcia was just trying to
get used to looking up into the dazzling light of David's eyes. She had to
droop her own almost immediately for the truth she read in his was
overpowering. Could it be? A fluttering thought came timidly to her heart
and would not be denied.

"Can it be, can it be that he cares for me? He loves me. He loves me!" It
sang its way in with thrill after thrill of joy and more and more David's
eyes told the story which his lips dared not risk yet. But eyes and hearts
are not held by the conventions that bind lips. They rushed into their
inheritance of each other and had that day ahead, a day so rare and sweet
that it would do to set among the jewels of fair days for all time and for
any one.

All too soon they began to turn into roads where were other vehicles, many
of them, and all going in the same direction. Men and women in gala day
attire all laughing and talking expectantly and looking at one another as
the carriages passed with a degree of familiar curiosity which betokens a
common errand. Family coaches, farm wagons, with kitchen chairs for
accommodation of the family; old one-horse chaises, carryalls, and even a
stage coach or two wheeled into the old turnpike. David and Marcia settled
into subdued quiet, their joy not expressing itself in the ripples of
laughter that had rung out earlier in the morning when they were alone.
They sought each other's eyes often and often, and in one of these
excursions that David's eyes made to Marcia's face he noticed how
extremely becoming the new bonnet was. After thinking it over he decided
to risk letting her know. He was not shy about it now.

"Do you know, dear," he said,--there had been a good many "dear's" slipping
back and forth all unannounced during that ride, and not openly
acknowledged either. "Do you know how becoming your new bonnet is to you?
You