u, in
condescending to view the _treasures_ of Clarendon, and to talk about
them afterward. To hear her, she is the most intimate friend you have
in Hampton."

"Good!" he said, "I'm glad you told me. Somehow, I'm always drawing
lemons."

"Am I a lemon?" she asked, abruptly.

"You! do you think you are?"

"One can never know."

"Have I drawn _you_?" he inquired.

"Quite immaterial to the question, which is: A lemon or not a lemon?"

"If you could but see yourself at this moment, you would not ask," he
said, looking at her with amused scrutiny.

The lovely face, the blue black hair, the fine figure in the simple
pink organdie, the slender ankles, the well-shod feet--a lemon!

"But as I can't see myself, and have no mirror handy, your testimony is
desired," she insisted. "A lemon or not a lemon?"

"A lemon!" he answered.

"Then you can't have any objection----"

"If you bring Miss Erskine in?" he interrupted. "Nay! Nay! _Nay!_ NAY!"

"----if I take you there for a game of Bridge--shall we go this very
evening?"

"If you wish," he answered.

She laughed. "I don't wish--and we are growing very silly. Come, tell
about your Annapolis trip. You stayed a great while."

"Something more than three weeks!"

"It's a queer old town, Annapolis--they call it the 'Finished City!'
It's got plenty of landmarks, and relics, but nothing more. If it were
not for the State Capitol and Naval Academy, it would be only a lot of
ruins, lost in the sand. In midsummer, it's absolutely dead. No one on
the streets, no one in the shops, no one any place.--Deserted--until
there's a fire. Then you should see them come out!"

"That is sufficiently expressed!" laughed Croyden. "But, with the
autumn and the Academy in session, the town seemed very much alive. We
sampled 'Cheney's Best,' Wegard's Cakes, and saw the Custard-and-Cream
Chapel."

"You've been to Annapolis, sure!" she replied. "There's only one thing
more--did you see Paul Jones?"

He shook his head. "We missed him."

"Which isn't surprising. You can't find him without the aid of a
detective or a guide."

"Then, who ever finds him?"

"No one!--and there is the shame. We accepted the vast labors and the
money of our Ambassador to France in locating the remains of America's
first Naval Hero; we sent an Embassy and a warship to bring them back;
we received them with honor, orated over them, fired guns over them.
And then, when the spectators had departed--assuming th