present. He has thrown up his job entirely
for politics. That seemed to be what he came out for. I left him on
the platform waiting for the down car, which he said was run by 'one of
the boys' whom he wanted to see." After a slight hesitation he added:
"I tried to persuade him to come with me, but I 'm glad now he did n't."

The frank friendliness of her gaze betrayed no acceptance of his
meaning. "And how did our experiment come out?" she asked. "I
inferred from his presence with you last night that you had struck up
some sort of a friendship. I thought you would." She motioned him to
be seated with her characteristic suggestion of imperiousness. "Sit
down, do, and tell me all about it. You 've come just in time for my
little picnic, though I 'm afraid the friend I expected has failed me.
You 'll get nothing to eat, however, but this basket of Concord grapes
which I picked up on the way." And she thrust it forward with a smile
of invitation.

He threw himself down at her feet, and having selected a cluster of the
purple fruit, he held it up admiringly to the light.

"I did n't see any one on the car except the usual suburbanites," he
remarked. "But would n't you be afraid out here all alone, with no men
to protect you?" He wondered who the friend might be, but was too much
pleased with his own good fortune to give it more than a passing
thought.

"I believe we ought to be," she confessed, "but we 're not. The truth
is, we like to get far away from civilisation and exchange confidences.
Warwick is a great whispering-gallery, full of tale-bearing bats that
peep and mutter."

He lifted his head and listened. "Did you get that faint lift of the
breeze in the pines just then? Now it's gone; but it was just like the
distant sound of the surf. If my eyes were shut, I should think myself
by the shore."

"Oh, I 've been listening to nothing else for the last half hour," she
returned, "and I much prefer the sound of a human voice. Too much of
nature frightens me. You see I have no soul."

"You 've too much soul, perhaps," he amended. "If you had less, you
would be impervious to such suggestions. But I know what you mean.
However, we were talking about our friend Emmet, and your description
of Warwick reminded me of his animadversions on the place. But let me
go back to the beginning for a fair start, and tell you how I managed
to get hold of him." He described the events of the morning following