.

The stream that she had discovered only after several seasons of
ardent exploration was not, geographically considered, of any especial
importance to the world at large. But behind the clump of alders out
of which it crept was a bit of pasture greensward about as big as a
room. Here one might lunch in as complete seclusion as if in the
Canadian woods or in the heart of Africa.

She was as eager to have him pleased as if this were some house of her
planning. "It's a better dining-place than any in town, isn't it?" she
asked.

"I should say so," he nodded.

With her permission, he lighted a cigarette and, stretching himself
out on the grass, enjoyed it as only a man can who has limited his
smokes to so many a day. She sat near the brook, and she too was quite
content and very comfortable.

"I don't see why you didn't tell me about this place before," he
observed.

"I wasn't quite sure you'd like it here, for one thing," she
answered.

"Why not?"

"It isn't a very gay place, is it?"

"It's considerably gayer than my house on a Sunday," he answered.

"It's your own fault you don't enjoy your house more," she declared.

"How is it?"

"Why, it's a wonderful thing to have a house all of your own. I used
to pretend this was a house all of my own."

"Don't you any longer?"

She was wondering how it would be about that, now that she had allowed
him to enter. Of course, she might treat him merely as a guest here;
but that was difficult, because the only thing she based her sense of
ownership on was the fact that no one else knew anything about the
place. She shook her head.

"It's hard to pretend anything except when you're alone," she
answered.

He sat up.

"Then you oughtn't to have let me come here with you."

She smiled.

"How could I help it? You just came."

"I know it," he admitted. "I'm always butting in, and you ought to
tell me so every now and then."

"Would that make any difference?"

"I don't know as it would," he admitted. "But it might make me
uncomfortable."

"I don't want to make you uncomfortable. I think you manage to make
yourself uncomfortable enough, as it is. And that's absurd, because
just being a man ought to keep you happy all the time."

"I don't see how you figure that," he answered.

"Being a man is being able to do about anything you wish."

"Don't you believe it," he replied. "Having money is the only thing
that makes you able to do what you wish."

"Oh, dea