of such ablutions would, in my limited
experience, engender a slight unrest among the tuneful Nine. Yet let her
gracefully lean above a woodland pool, roll back her sleeves and open
the collar of her shooting shirt, and she becomes a personification of
glory to him who waits near the fire he has built for their evening
meal. But she must have looked danger in the face with him, slept near
him beneath the stars; knowing, should she be affrighted in the night,
that her call will bring his reassuring answer, but also knowing that
the voice is all that will ever come unbidden to her side. And thus is
the Cave-man in him gloriously aroused to guard her from Nature's wild,
while the poetry of their intercourse guards her from himself. What more
beautiful existence than to live alone in a forest with the girl you
love!

I thought that after dinner it might be well to sit again beside the
fort where we could watch the prairie. There is a comforting sense of
security that comes to one at nightfall when one has looked in all
directions and found all things well. So for a while she left me to the
orgy of washing dishes, but when I had turned the last plate top down
upon our kitchen log to dry, I saw her returning.

She came humming a tune, a catchy tune--I recognized it at once--that
the mandolins had tinkled in the Havana cafe, and from the mischievous
curves about the corners of her mouth I knew that her mood was adorable.
So I caught up the tune, whistling softly, and crossed to her holding
out my hands.

"It's a corking fox-trot," I said, for the moment stopping our
orchestra. "Let's dance it!"

But she drew back, laughing outright.

"I don't know how!"

"Don't dance?" I must have looked my amazement, for she answered:

"I've often danced, all alone, when I just couldn't help it; but there
hasn't been any one to teach me your kind!"

"I will," I cried delightedly. "We'll begin with that fox-trot!"

"We'd look awfully silly," she replied. "Besides, the name of your dance
is atrocious."

I felt rather thankful that I hadn't suggested the shimmy.

"That may get you out of it now," I announced, "but when we reach the
yacht I'm going to teach you ten hours a day. Understand?--ten hours a
day!"

Again came the tantalizing expression, as she daintily caught her skirt
and made me a royal curtsey, saying:

"It's beyond all measure charming of you, Chancellor. But shall I be so
difficult?"

"Don't joke about a wonder