of her comments
pleased him; the youthfulness of her was irresistible; and he found
himself observing the changing curves of her throat and cheek as she
turned her head a little aside or raised her chin; found himself
watching for certain unconscious attitudes; awaiting the lift of her
eyes to his, harkening for particular tones of her voice. And Bryant,
who, though he knew it not, was also athirst for companionship, more
and more yielded to her subtle feminine attraction. "She's even
prettier than I supposed," he thought. Her lips, her nose, her eyes of
deep gray with their wonderfully long lashes--each had a particular
charm of its own. He admired the grace of her figure. He felt an odd
surprise at her apparent soft and pliant strength, as at a discovery.
His mind thrilled with delight at her laughter.

"Look where the sun is!" she exclaimed, all at once. "Straight over
our heads--noon. Your David will be wondering where you are, while
Imogene will imagine I'm lost. Let me pick a flower to stick in the
ribbon of your hat and then I'll go."

"Your fingers will suffer; I'll get some," Lee said, quickly. From a
spreading bed of prickly-pear he plucked a dozen of the cactus
blossoms, ranging in colour from a delicate lemon to a deep orange. He
turned to her.

"First I'll decorate you," he said. "Please assume an angelic
expression and gaze straight at the camera."

She tilted her chin upward and thrust her arms downward with all five
fingers of each hand stretched apart. But immediately she began to
laugh. Lee gave her a reproving tap on the uplifted chin and then
fastened the flowers in her hat-band. A thrill like fire ran through
his body at the proximity of that soft, round chin, those red lips,
her eyes gleaming with merriment.

"Now, beauty!" he said, stepping back.

The yellow blossoms made a garland about her hat.

"Do you like them thus?" she asked, delighted.

"Immensely."

"Then they shall stay there. And Imo will die of envy when I tell her
they're yours."

"Nobody ever died of that."

"Perhaps not. But she will suffer extremely. You didn't even put bean
plants in her hat."

Lee was highly amused at this raillery. He began to walk forward by
her side as she moved away from the spot, now addressing her, now
listening to her words, in a desire to stretch the last minute to the
uttermost. Her head came just even with his shoulder, so that she had
to raise her face to gaze at him when he spoke, an