from choice, not from necessity;
but why from choice? With her face and her charm--he felt the charm
already; it radiated from her--why should she want to tie herself down
to a dull round of duty like that instead of giving her thoughts to the
things girls of her position usually cared for? Taking into
consideration the statement Ted had lately made about his elder brother,
it struck Richard Kendrick that this must be a family of rather
eccentric notions. Somewhat to his surprise he discovered that the idea
interested him. He had found people of his own acquaintance tiresomely
alike; he congratulated himself on having met somebody who seemed likely
to prove different.

"So you rejoice in your half-holiday, Miss Gray," Richard observed when
he had the chance. "I suppose you know exactly what you are going to do
with it?"

"Why do you think I do?" she asked with an odd little twist of the lip.
"Do you always plan even unexpected holidays so carefully?"

It occurred to Richard that up to the last fortnight his days since he
left college had been all holidays, and there had been plenty of them
throughout college life itself. But he answered seriously: "I don't
believe I do. But I had the idea that teachers were so in the habit of
living on schedules scientifically made out that even their holidays
were conscientiously lived up to, with the purpose of getting the full
value out of them."

Even as he said it he could have laughed aloud at the thought of these
straitlaced principles being applicable to the young person who sat at
the table with himself and Ted. She a teacher? Never! He had known no
women teachers since his first governess had been exchanged for a tutor,
the sturdy youngster having rebelled, at an extraordinarily early age,
against petticoat government. His acquaintance included but one woman of
that profession--and she was a college president. He and she had not got
on well together, either, during the brief period in which they had been
thrown together--on an ocean voyage. But he had seen plenty of teachers,
crossing the Atlantic in large parties, surveying cathedrals, taking
coach drives, inspecting art galleries--all with that conscientious air
of making the most of it. Miss Roberta Gray one of that serious company?
It was incredible!

"Dear me," laughed Roberta, "what a keen observer you are! I am almost
afraid to admit that I have no conscientiously thought-out plan--but
one. I am going to put mysel