land."

"Miss Galland! How?"

"She is learning the deaf-and-dumb alphabet in order the better to
communicate with me. She likes to talk of the flowers--gardening is a
passion with her, too--and all the while, in face of the honesty of
those big eyes of hers and of her gentle old mother's confidence, I am
living a lie! Oh, the satire of it! And I have not been used to lying.
That is my only virtue; at any rate, I was never a liar!"

"Then, why stay, Gustave? I will find something else for you."

"No!" Feller shot back irritably. "No!" he repeated resolutely. "I don't
want to go! I mean to be game--I--" He shifted his gaze dismally from
the bush which he still pretended to examine and suddenly broke off
with: "Miss Galland is coming!"

He started to move away with a gardener's shuffling steps, looking from
right to left for weeds. Then pausing, he glanced back, his face in
another transformation--that of a comedian.

"La, la, la!" he clucked, tossing his head gayly. "Depend on me, Lanny!
They'll never know I'm not deaf. I get my blue fits only on Sundays! And
deafness has its compensations. Think if I had to listen to all the
stories of my table companion, Peter, the coachman! La, la, la!" he
clucked again, before disappearing around a bend in the path. "La, la,
la! I'm the man for this part!"

Lanstron started toward the steps that Marta was ascending. She moved
leisurely, yet with a certain springy energy that suggested that she
might have come on the run without being out of breath or seeming to
have made an effort. Without seeing him, she paused before one of the
urns of hydrangeas in full bloom that flanked the third terrace wall,
and, as if she would encompass and plunge her spirit into their abundant
beauty, she spread out her arms and drew the blossoms together in a mass
in which she half buried her face. The act was delightful in its grace
and spontaneity. It was like having a page out of her secret self. It
brought the glow of his great desire into Lanstron's eyes.

"Hello, stranger!" she called as she saw him, and quickened her pace.

"Hello, pedagogue!" he responded.

As they shook hands they swung their arms back and forth like a pair of
romping children for a moment.

"We had a grand session of the school this morning, the largest class
ever!" she said. "And the points we scored off you soldiers! You'll find
disarmament already in progress when you return to headquarters. We're
irresistible, or