by the lily corner and make
a picnic place here sometime," Thaine said as they sat by the lake in the
late afternoon.

"Such a nice place for you to come in the summer. Aren't you glad you
don't just have to stay in the country?" Jo asked.

"Would you never be satisfied in the country, Jo?" Thaine queried. "Not if
you had a home there?"

Jo blushed and her face was exquisite in its rich coloring.

"Would you be?" she asked.

"Oh, I'd like to do something worth while," Thaine replied. "Father
doesn't say much, but he wants me here, I know."

"He will get over it, I'm sure," Jo insisted. "Why should the first
generation here weight us all down here, too? I hope you'll not give up to
your father. I wouldn't," Jo said defiantly.

"Did you ever give up to him?" Thaine asked.

"No, he gives up to me." The words were too sweetly said to seem harsh.

"I don't blame him," Thaine added.

"I don't believe any of our crowd will stay here like the old folks have
done, except Todd Stewart and, of course, Leigh," Jo declared.

"Say, Jo, my folks don't look old to me. Mummie is younger and
good-lookinger than anybody, except--"

"Leigh Shirley," Jo broke in.

Thaine looked at his watch without replying.

"Is it late? You must take me home, now," Jo said. "You'll be over
tonight, won't you? We will have some company from Careyville who want to
meet you."

"I'm sorry, but I promised Leigh up here at church that I'd go over to
Cloverdale for a little while tonight."

Thaine could not tell Jo of Leigh's affairs, and he felt that the
Shirleys' intimacy with his father's family and his own expressed
admiration and attention to Jo were sufficient to protect him from
jealousy. Jo stiffened visibly.

"Thaine Aydelot, what's the reason for your actions--Oh, I don't care. Go
to Shirley's, by all means. Everybody to his likes," she cried angrily.

"Well, that's my rathers for tonight, and I can't help it," Thaine
answered hotly.

"Of course you can't. Let's go home quick so you can get off early," Jo
said in an angered tone.

"I'll go as slowly as I can. You can't get rid of me so." Thaine was
getting control of himself again.

"Say, Thaine, tell me why you go away from our company tonight," Jo
pleaded softly, putting her hand on her companion's arm. "Don't you care
to come to our house any more?"

They were in the buggy now on the driveway across the lake. Thaine
recalled the moonlight hour when he sat with Leigh, of