of the old boy-and-girl
openness of heart and mind. Her hesitation was only momentary.

"You are just as rude and Gothic as you used to be, aren't you, Tom?
Don't you know, I'm childishly glad of it; I was afraid you might be
changed in that way, too,--and I don't want to find anything changed.
You needn't be polite at the expense of truth--not with me."

He looked at her with love in his eyes.

"This time, you mean--or all the time."

"All the time, if you like."

"I do like; there has got to be some one person in this world to whom I
can talk straight, Ardea."

She laughed a little laugh of half-constraint.

"You speak as if there had been a vacancy."

"There has been--for just about three years. I remember you told me once
that I'd find two kinds of friends: those who would refuse to believe
anything bad of me, and those who would size me up and still stick to
me. You are the only one of that second lot I have discovered thus far."

"We are getting miles away from the Fifth Avenue Hotel," she reminded
him.

"No; we are just now approaching it from the proper direction. I had my
war paint on that morning, and I wasn't fit to talk to you."

"Business?" she queried.

"Yes. Didn't the Major tell you about it?"

"Not a word. I hope you didn't quarrel with him, too?"

He marked the adverb of addition and wondered if Vincent Farley had
been less reticent than Major Dabney.

"No; I didn't quarrel with your grandfather."

"But you did quarrel with Mr. Farley?--or was it with Vincent?"

He smiled and shook his head.

"We can't do it, Ardea--go back to the old way, you know. You see
there's a stump in the road, the very first thing."

"I shan't admit it," she said half-defiantly. "I am going to make you
like the Farleys."

He shook his head again. "You'll have to make a Christian of me first,
and teach me how to love my enemies."

"Don't you do that now?"

"No; not unless you are my enemy; I love you."

She looked up at him appealingly.

"Don't make fun of such things, Tom. Love is sacred."

"I was never further from making fun of things in my life. I mean it
with every drop of blood in me. You said you didn't want to find me
changed; I'm not changed in that, at least."

"You ridiculous boy!" she said; but that was only a stop-gap, and
Longfellow added another by coming to a stand opposite a vast
obstruction of building material half damming the white road. "What are
you doing here--building m