e he had looked upon it he seemed to have an idea of some sort
in the back of his head regarding it; a dim, unformed, fugitive sort of
idea which had never asserted itself very prominently because he had
been too busy to listen to its rather timid voice.

Just now, however, the idea suddenly struggled to make itself loudly
known, whereupon Sam bade it come forth. Given hearing it proved to be
a very pleasant idea, and a forceful one as well; so much so that it
even checked the speed with which Sam had set out for Hollis Creek. He
looked calculatingly across the road to where the little stream went
flashing from under its wooden bridge across the field and hid around a
curve behind some bushes, then reappeared, dancing in the sunlight,
until finally it plunged among some far trees and was lost to him. He
gazed up the stream. He had not very far to look, for there it ran
down between two quite steep hills, through a sort of pocket valley,
closed or almost closed, at the upper end, by another hill equally
steep, its waters being augmented by a leaping little stream from a
strong spring hidden away somewhere in the hill to the left.

As his eyes calculatingly swept stream and hills, they suddenly caught
a flutter of white through the trees, and it was coming down the
winding path which led across the hills to Hollis Creek. As it emerged
more from the concealment of the leaves his blood gave a leap, for the
flutter of white was a gown inclosing the unmistakable figure of Miss
Josephine Stevens. The whole valley suddenly seemed radiant.

"Hello!" he called to her as she approached. "I didn't expect to find
you here."

"I did not expect to be here," she laughed. "I just started out for a
stroll and happened to land in this beautiful spot."

"Beautiful is no name for it," he replied with sudden vast enthusiasm,
and ran up the path to help her down over a steep place.

For a moment, in the wonderful mystery of the touch of her hand and the
joy of her presence, he forgot everything else. What was this strange
phenomenon, by which the mere presence of one particular person filled
all the air with a tingling glow? Marvelous, that's what it was! If
Miss Josephine had any of the same wonder she was extremely careful not
to express it, nor let it show, especially after yesterday's
conversation, so she immediately talked of other things; and the first
thing which came handy was another reference to the beautiful valley.