, however, saw nothing about which to give herself any
concern. If she perceived the girl intense and preoccupied, she smiled
indulgently--at Mary Virginia's age one is apt to be like that, and
one recovers from that phase as one gets over mumps and measles. Mrs.
Baker did think it advisable, though, to subtly detach the girl from
books for awhile. She amused herself by allowing her wide-eyed
glimpses of the larger life of grown-ups, by way of arousing and
initiation. Thus it happened that one afternoon at the country-club,
where Mary Virginia, at the green-fruit stage, found herself playing
gooseberry instead of golf, Mrs. Baker sauntered up with a tall and
very blonde man.

"Here," said she gaily, indicating with a wave of her hand her
sulky-eyed young cousin, "is a marvel and a wonder--a girl who accepts
on faith everything and everybody! My dear Howard, in all probability
she will presently even believe in _you_!" With that she left them,
whisked off by a waiting golfer.

The man and the girl appraised each other. The man saw young
bread-and-butter with the raw sugar of beauty sprinkled upon it
promisingly. What the girl saw was not so much a faultlessly groomed
and handsome man as the most beautiful person in the world. And
suddenly she was aware that that for which she had been waiting had
come. Something divine and wonderful was happening, and there was fire
before her eyes and the noise of unloosed winds and great waters in
her ears, and her knees trembled and her heart fluttered. A vivid red
flamed into her pale cheeks, a soft and trembling light suffused her
blue eyes. That happens when the sweet and virginal freshness of youth
is brought face to face with the bright shadow of love.

He drew her out of her shyness and made her laugh, and after awhile,
when there was dancing, he danced with her. He did not behave to her
as other men of Estelle's acquaintance had more than once behaved--as
though they bestowed the lordly honor of their society upon her out of
the sheer goodness of their hearts and their desire to please Mrs.
Baker. Mary Virginia was uncompromising and stiff-necked enough then,
and she bored most of her cousin's friends unconsciously. Now this
man, as much their superior as the sun is to farthing dips, was
exerting himself to please her. That was the one thing Mary Virginia
needed to arouse her.

Mrs. Baker admired Mr. Hunter for a grace of manner almost Latin in
its charm. If at times he pu