changing countenance
and leaning forward. "By Jinks, it's a _man_!"

"Certainly. There are four men here. You knew that."

"I forgot," he said, glowering at the unwelcome sight of his own sex.

Ethra said: "Oh, yes, there are those first four men we caught--Mr.
Willett, Mr. Carrick, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Green." She added carelessly: "I
have been paying rather marked attention to Alphonso W. Green."

"To whom?" he asked, with a disagreeable sensation drenching out the
sparks of joy in his bosom.

"To Alphonso W. Green. . . . And I've jollied De Lancy Smith with
bon-bons a bit, too. They are having a lot of attention paid them--and
they're rather spoiled. But, of course, any girl can marry any one of
them if she really wants to."

Langdon gazed miserably at her; she seemed to be pleasantly immersed in
her own reflections and paid no further heed to him. Then he cast a
scowling glance in the direction of the young man who was gathering wild
flowers and arranging them in a little basket.

"Ethra," he began--and stopped short under the sudden and unexpected
unfriendliness of her glance. "Miss Leslie," he resumed, reddening, "I
wouldn't have come here unless I thought--hoped--believed--that you would
pay _me_ m-m-marked----"

"_Mr. Langdon!_"

"What?"

"Men do not assume the initiative here. They make no advances; they wait
until a girl pays them attentions so unmistakable that----"

"Well, I _did_ come here because of you!" he blurted out angrily.

"That is an exceedingly indelicate avowal!" she retorted. "If the Regents
hear you talk that way you won't be permitted to receive any girl
unchaperoned."

He gazed at her, bewildered; she stood a moment frowning and looking in
the direction of the cave whither the Board of Regents had retired.

"They're calling me," she exclaimed as a figure appeared at the cave
entrance and beckoned her.

"I won't be long, Mr. Langdon. I am perfectly confident that you have
passed the inspection!" And she walked swiftly across to the edge of the
thicket where the three Regents stood outside their cave.

As she came up one of them put her arm around her.

"My poor child," she said, "that man will never do."

"W-what!" faltered the girl, turning pale.

"Why, no. How in the world could you make such a mistake?"

Ethra looked piteously from one to another.

"What is the matter with him?" she asked. "I can't see anything the
matter with him. If his legs are a trifle--refined