next remark: "I would n't have believed two hours ago that this
path could seem so long!"

They reached the boat-house at last, but instead of turning up the
ravine which he had followed from the spring, she ascended a flight of
stairs and came out upon an open road. From this point their way was
straight and plain. On their right lay the woods from which they had
emerged, and on their left was an unobstructed field. In this free
space the heavens seemed to expand immeasurably, and both felt the
influence of the change. She began to make light of her former alarm,
and his mood became more hopeful. He told himself that he had
nourished impossible expectations, considering their short
acquaintance, and that the remnant of their time together could be
better employed than by indulging alone his wounded pride. As they
walked up and down the platform, waiting for the car, the frogs from a
near-by pool trilled intermittently, and they paused to listen.

"They seem to be congratulating themselves upon the prolongation of the
summer season," he remarked. "Miss Wycliffe, have you any peculiar
associations with that sound?"

"Dinners," she returned flippantly. "Heavens! I've had enough of
nature for one evening. How perfectly melancholy! But what do they
remind you of?"

"I 'm in a reminiscent mood," he confessed. "I can never hear the
frogs trilling in the night without being reminded of the marshlands
around my native town in the Middle West. Every night, all summer
long, I could hear that symphony through the open windows of my room,
and because I was then in the adventurous and romantic period of youth,
the recurrence of the sound brings back an echo of old emotions. I
feel as if I were being called upon to go out into the world and seek
my fortune."

"Have you been back there lately?" she asked. "How does it seem to
revisit the home of your childhood after having had adventures, and
after having done something in the world? I 've never had any home but
this, I 've never travelled except for pleasure, and I 've never
accomplished anything."

Leigh lifted his head and laughed, but the laugh was not altogether a
happy one. "You present me to myself in a new light," he answered.
"So far I have only accomplished the feat of reaching the first rung of
the ladder which I used to think I would have climbed by this time.
But yes, I have been back there recently, and found everything changed.
In fact, the Wes