but Nancy's happiness
appeared in that moment to have been of another sort. He could not
help thinking what a wonderful perennial quality there is in
friendship. Because it had once flourished and bloomed, no winter
snows of Maine could bury it, no summer sunshine of foreign life could
wither this single flower of a day long past. The years vanished like
a May snowdrift, and because they had known each other once they found
each other now.

It was like a tough little sprig of gray everlasting; the New England
edelweiss that always keeps a white flower ready to blossom safe and
warm in its heart.

They entertained each other delightfully that late summer morning. Tom
talked of his wife and children as he had seldom talked of them to any
one before, and afterward explained the land interests which had
brought him back at this late day to East Rodney.

"I came down meaning to sell my land to a speculator," he said, "or to
a real estate agency which has great possessions along the coast; but
I'm very doubtful about doing it, now that I have seen the bay again
and this lovely shore. I had no idea that it was such a magnificent
piece of country. I was going on from here to Mount Desert, with a
half idea of buying land there. Why isn't this good enough that I own
already? With a yacht or a good steam launch we shouldn't be so far
away from places along the coast, you know. What if I were to build a
house above Sunday Cove, on the headland, and if we should be
neighbors! I have a friend who might build another house on the point
beyond; we came home from abroad at about the same time, and he's
looking for a place to build, this side of Bar Harbor." Tom was half
confiding in his old acquaintance, and half thinking aloud. "These
real estate brokers can't begin to give a man the value of such land
as mine," he added.

"It would be excellent business to come and live here yourself, if you
want to bring up the value of the property," said Nancy gravely. "I
hear there are a good many lots staked out between here and Portland,
but it takes more than that to start things. There can't be any
prettier place than East Rodney," she declared, looking affectionately
out of her little north window. "It would be a great blessing to city
people, if they could come and have our good Rodney air."

The friends talked on a little longer, and with great cheerfulness and
wealth of reminiscence. Tom began to understand why nobody seemed to
pity