stoutly. "There never was a house to
compare with it. I always loved it; and so did you, Nan. What a summer
we shall have here, when I am reading up for honors in the long
vacation! I mean to work pretty hard; for when a fellow has such an
object as that----" And then he looked at Nan meaningly; but she was
not to be beguiled into that subject.

They were so happy, and so young, that they could afford to wait a
little; and she did not wish Dick to speak yet of that day that was
looming in the distance.

She could only be sure of one summer at Glen Cottage; but what a time
they would have! She stood for a long while looking out on the lawn
and calling up possible visions of summer afternoons. The
tennis-ground was marked out already in her imagination; the tea-table
in its old place under the trees; there was her mother knitting in her
favorite wicker-chair; there were Dulce and Phillis, surrounded by
their friends

"Come away, Nan. Are you moon-struck, or dreaming?" questioned Dick,
drawing her arm through his. "Do you remember what we have to do
before luncheon? And Vigo looks so impatient for his run." But even
Dick paused for a moment in the veranda to show Nan the rose she had
picked for him just there, and which still lay in his pocket-book.

All her old friends crowded round Nan to welcome her back; and great
were the rejoicings when they heard that Glen Cottage was to be in the
Challoners' possession again. Carrie Paine and Adelaide Sartoris
called first. Carrie embraced Nan with tearful effusion: she was an
honest, warm-hearted creature. But Adelaide looked at her a little
curiously.

"Oh, my dear, the scandal that has been talked about you all!" she
said, in a mysterious tone. "Carrie and I would not believe it: would
we, Car? We told people to hold their tongues, and not talk such
nonsense."

"Never mind that now, Addie," returned Nan, cheerfully. She felt she
must be careful of what she said, for Dick's sake. "We have had our
worries, and have worked as better people have before us; but now it
is all over."

"But is it true that your cousin, Sir Henry Challoner, has bought
Gilsbank?" broke in Carrie. "Tell us about him, dear. Addie thought
she saw him once. Is he a tall man, with red hair?"

"Very red hair," responded Nan, laughing.

"Then I did see him," replied Miss Sartoris, decidedly. "He is quite a
giant, Nan; but he looks very good-natured."

Miss Sartoris was just engaged to a dapper lit