ome people?"

"And on the other hand," promptly returned Steve, "how delightful to
think of growing more and more like certain other people," turning to
her with a light in his eye.

"But then there is the uncertainty,--which is most likely to influence
the other," said Nancy, switching dexterously away from hinted
personal application, and then with a dash of daring gaiety, adding,
"When you marry a girl with a crooked nose, will yours begin to crook
likewise, or will hers take on your symmetrical lines?"

"But I am not going to take one with a crooked nose," said Steve,
smiling significantly in spite of himself.

"Perhaps not, but the question remains,--which is most likely to
conform, a husband or a wife," said Nancy, shying back to the abstract
again, with pretty positiveness. And then she called gaily, as she
touched Gyp with her whip and started both horses off on a brisk
canter, leaving the wood for the road, "Please let me know if you
solve the problem, so I may be relieved in mind or forewarned."

As she dashed on slightly ahead of him, spirit and beauty in every
line of pony and rider, Steve said to himself with a quizzical smile:

"How cleverly she manages to keep me at arm's length. Oh, little
Nancy, where did you learn such tactics?" and he did not know that
"such tactics" were sure forerunners of surrender.

As for Nancy, she stood a little later by her bedroom window. The
trim, smart riding-habit was laid aside and a little light muslin of
almost childlike simplicity had taken its place. She stood looking out
at nothing through brimming tears, with flushed cheeks and quivering
lips.

"I do blush so horridly when I am with him, and I'm afraid I say
things I shouldn't. Oh, what makes me, when I do like him so much!"

XIV

"ALL RIGHT, SON"

After dinner Steve walked over to the store with Mr. Follet, talked
with him a little, and then strolling up the street afterwards, he was
joined with great cordiality by Raymond Colton.

The talk was breezy as was inevitable with Raymond. He had graduated
at a great northern university in June, had any amount of _sang froid_
and had as yet caught no glimpse of life save as a field for
pleasure.

"What do you think of Miss Nancy?" he inquired enthusiastically.
"Isn't she the prettiest thing going? I have seen them north, south,
east, and west, but I honestly believe I never saw a sweeter flower
growing than Nancy Follet!" he went on without waitin