not swerve an inch from her way when a snake slid past her, while the
squirrels came down from the trees and took corn from her fingers.
She might as well have been a boy, so lacking was she in any touch of
feminine coquetry toward him. He studied her wonderingly. As they went
along the path they reached a large slime-covered pool surrounded by
decaying stumps and logs thickly covered with water hyacinths and blue
flags. Philip stopped.

"Is that the place?" he asked.

Elnora assented. "The doctor told you?"

"Yes. It was tragic. Is that pool really bottomless?"

"So far as we ever have been able to discover."

Philip stood looking at the water, while the long, sweet grasses,
thickly sprinkled with blue flag bloom, over which wild bees clambered,
swayed around his feet. Then he turned to the girl. She had worked hard.
The same lavender dress she had worn the previous day clung to her in
limp condition. But she was as evenly coloured and of as fine grain as
a wild rose petal, her hair was really brown, but never was such hair
touched with a redder glory, while her heavy arching brows added a look
of strength to her big gray-blue eyes.

"And you were born here?"

He had not intended to voice that thought.

"Yes," she said, looking into his eyes. "Just in time to prevent my