directed her
footsteps until they had touched and lingered on the outer circle of his
vagabondage. Both seemed to have forgotten all about his excellency.

"Rested?" queried Mr. Heatherbloom.

"Quite," she answered. There was no trace of weariness in her voice.
"And you?"

"Ditto," he laughed. Then, more gravely, "You see, I fell asleep while
watching," he confessed.

"I'm glad."

"You'd make a lenient commanding officer. Shall we go on?"

"Where?"

"I don't exactly know," he confessed.

"That's lovely." Then, tentatively, "It's nice here."

"Fine," he assented. There was no hardness in the violet eyes as they
rested on him. He did not pause to analyze the miracle; he only
accepted it. A moment he yielded to the temptation of the lotus-eater
and continued to luxuriate in the lap of Arcadia. Then he bestirred
himself uneasily; it was not sufficient just to breathe in the golden
gladness of the moment. "Yes; it's fine," he repeated, "only you see--"

"Of course!" she said with a little sigh, and rose. "_I_ see you are
going to be very domineering, the way you were yesterday."

"I? Domineering?"

"Weren't you?" she demanded, looking at him from beneath long lashes.

"I'm sure I didn't intend--" He stopped for she was laughing at him.
They went on and her mood continued to puzzle him. Never had he seen her
so blithe, so gay. She waved her hand back at the woodland spot.
"Good-by," she said.

Then they came upon the little town suddenly--so suddenly that both
appeared bewildered. Only a hillock had separated them from the sight of
it the night before. They looked and looked. It lay beneath an upward
sweep of land, in a cosy indenture of a great circle that swept far
around and away, fringed with cocoanut trees. Small wisps or corkscrews
of smoke defiled the blue of the sky; a wharf, with a steamer at the
end, obtruded abruptly upon the curve of the shore. Mr. Heatherbloom
regarded the boat--a link from Arcadia to the mundane world. He should
have been glad but he didn't seem overwhelmed at the sight; he stood
very still. He hardly felt her hand on his sleeve; the girl's eyes were
full of sparkles.

"What luck!" he said at length, his voice low and somewhat more formal.

"Isn't it?" she answered. And drawing in her breath--"I can scarcely,
believe it."

"It's there all right." He spoke slowly. "Come." And they went down. A
colored worker in the fields stared at them, but Betty nodded gaily, and
asked wh