house for a run down to the lake, a dash in a canoe, or a brief stroll
across the meadow before the breakfast-gong. Instead of Gloria's terse
message for him, she had quite an elaborate and laughing tale to tell.
After all, Gloria usually did know what she was about, and if Mr.
Gratton meant all that he looked--Mrs. Gaynor had cast up a rough draft
of everything she would say that morning before she opened the door to
go downstairs. And for reasons very clear to her and which she had no
doubt would be viewed with equal clarity by Gloria after this "escapade"
of hers was done with, she meant to be very tactful indeed with Mr.
Gratton.

* * * * *

Never had Mark King known pleasanter companionship than Gloria Gaynor
afforded this bright morning. They passed up the trail, over the first
ridge, dropped down into a tiny wild little valley, and had the world
all alone to themselves. Only now was the sun up, and there in the
mountains, blazing forth cheerily, it seemed to shine for them alone.
When they rode side by side Gloria chatted brightly, athrill with
animation, vivid with her rioting youth. When the narrow trail demanded
and she rode ahead, bright little snatches of lilting song or broken
exclamations floated back to the man whose eyes shone with his enjoyment
of her. On every hand this was all a bright new world to her; she had
never run wild in the hills as her mother had done through her girlhood;
she had never been particularly interested in all of this sprawling
ruggedness. Now she had a hundred eager questions; she saw the shining
splendour of the solitudes through King's eyes; she turned to him with
full confidence for the name of a flower, the habit of a bird, even
though the latter, unseen among the trees, had only announced himself by
a half-dozen enraptured notes.