nt snapshotting of
everything from an angleworm to a group of arm-entwined bathers about
to play splash-me; the cheap talk and aping of such Gorgeous Girls as
Beatrice Constantine--all this on one side, and a great and eternal
loneliness for Steve on the other.

It was small wonder that defeat was the result. And yet in her heart
of hearts Mary was glad that it was so. There is something splendid
and breathless in trying to shut away a forbidden rapture, and being
unable to do so; in telling oneself one will never try repression
again but will shamelessly acknowledge the forbidden rapture and
register a desire to thrill to it whenever possible.

Besides the irritations of the summer camp Mary had been forced to
leave Hanover remembering Steve as ill, worried over business; of
Beatrice's hinting that she would usurp her place. There had been so
many womanly trifles she would have done for Steve had she been in
Beatrice's position--a linen cover for the water glass; a soft shade
on the window instead of the glaring white-and-gold-striped affair;
exile for that ubiquitous spaniel; home cooking, with old-fashioned
milk toast and real coffee of a forefather's day.

Strange how such homey trifles persist in the mind of a commercial nun
through two months of supposed enjoyment and liberty. In the same way
incongruous associations of ideas spring into the brain with no
apparent reason at all causing fossilized professors to write
essays-under-glass that elucidate matters not in the slightest.

So Mary returned to the office two days ahead of time, her heart
thumping so loudly that she thought Miss Lunk would surely detect the
sound. She deliberately dressed herself in a demure new suit and a
becoming black-winged hat which made her seem as if delightfully
arrayed for afternoon tea. And it was with a charming timidity that
she tiptoed into the office.

Before Steve had asked her opinion she had given one swift look about
the two offices, and she was glad that they looked as they did. It
would have been disappointing to have found them spick and span and
quite self-sufficient, without a hint that Mary Faithful was missed or
irreplaceable.

Evidences of Beatrice's brief sojourn in the business world still
remained--an elaborate easy-chair with rose pillows, a thermos bottle
and cut-glass tumbler, a curlicue French mirror slightly awry and, on
her desk, a gay-bordered silk handkerchief, a silver-mesh bag, and a
great amount