enic. Una
had been anxious lest Mr. Schwirtz "pay her too marked attentions; make
them as conspicuous as Mr. Starr and Miss Vincent"; for in the morning
he had hung about, waiting for a game of croquet with her. But Mr.
Schwirtz was equally pleasant to her, to Miss Vincent, and to Mrs.
Cannon; and he was attractively ardent regarding the scenery. "This
cer'nly beats New York, eh? Especially you being here," he said to her,
aside.

They sang ballads about the fire at dusk, and trailed home along dark
paths that smelled of pungent leaf-mold. Mr. Schwirtz lumbered beside
her, heaped with blankets and pails and baskets till he resembled a
camel in a caravan, and encouraged her to tell how stupid and
unenterprising Mr. Troy Wilkins was. When they reached the farm-house
the young moon and the great evening star were low in a wash of
turquoise above misty meadows; frogs sang; Una promised herself a long
and unworried sleep; and the night tingled with an indefinable magic.
She was absolutely, immaculately happy, for the first time since she had
been ordered to take Walter Babson's dictation.

Sec. 5

Mr. Schwirtz was generous; he invited all the boarders to a hay-ride
picnic at Hawkins's Pond, followed by a barn dance. He took Una and the
Cannons for a motor ride, and insisted on buying--not giving, but
buying--dinner for them, at the Lesterhampton Inn.

When the debutante Una bounced and said she _did_ wish she had some
candy, he trudged down to the village and bought for her a two-pound box
of exciting chocolates. And when she longed to know how to play tennis,
he rented balls and two rackets, tried to remember what he had learned
in two or three games of ten years before, and gave her elaborate
explanations. Lest the farm-house experts (Mr. Cannon was said by Mrs.
Cannon to be one of the very best players at the Winnetka Country Club)
see them, Una and Mr. Schwirtz sneaked out before breakfast. Their
tennis costumes consisted of new canvas shoes. They galloped through the
dew and swatted at balls ferociously--two happy dubs who proudly used
all the tennis terms they knew.

Sec. 6

Mr. Schwirtz was always there when she wanted him, but he never
intruded, he never was urgent. She kept him away for a week; but in
their second week Mr. and Mrs. Cannon, Mr. Starr, Miss Vincent, and the
pleasant couple from Gloversville all went away, and Una and Mr.
Schwirtz became the elder generation, the seniors, of the boarders. T