"

"You like Newport and Palm Beach, too."

The man ignored the interruption.

"But, at least, this trip has combined a good bit of business with a
very big bit of pleasure. It is two years since I have seen you
and----"

"And so you're going to tell me for the twenty-sixth time in three days
that you still love me, and that you want me to marry you, and I'll
have to say 'no' again, and explain that I'm not ready to marry
anybody." She regarded him with an air of mock solemnity. "But really
Mr. Winthrop Adams Endicott I think you _have_ improved since you
struck out for yourself into the wilds of--where was it, Ohio, or some
place."

"Cincinnati," answered the man a trifle stiffly. The girl shuddered.
"I had to change cars there once." Again she eyed him critically.
"Yes, two years have made a really noticeable improvement. Do the
Cincinnati newspapers always remember to use your whole name or do they
dare to refer to Winthrop A. Endicott. If I were a reporter I really
believe I'd try it once. If you keep on improving, some day somebody
is going to call you Win."

The man flushed: "Are you never serious?" he asked.

"Never more so than this minute."

"You say you are not ready to many. You expect to marry, then,
sometime?"

"I don't _expect_ to. I'm _going_ to."

"Will you marry me when you are ready?"

The girl laughed. "Yes, if I can't find the man I want, I think I
shall. But he must be somewhere," she continued, after a pause during
which her eyes centred upon the point where the two gleaming rails
vanished into the distance. "He must be impractical, and human,
and--and _elemental_. I'd rather be smashed to pieces in the Grand
Canyon, than live for ever on the Erie Canal!"

"Aren't you rather unconventional in your tastes----?"

"If I'm not, I'm a total failure! I hate conventionality! And lines
of least resistance! And practical things! It is the _men_ who are
the real sticklers for convention. The same kind of men that follow
the lines of least resistance and build their railroads along
them--because it is practical!

"I don't see why you want to marry me!" she burst out resentfully.
"I'm not conventional, nor practical. And I'm not a line of least
resistance!"

"But I love you. I have always loved you, and----"

The girl interrupted him with a quick little laugh, which held no trace
of resentment. "Yes, yes, I know. I believe you do. And I'm glad
because really, Wint