clear that they actually call it Crystal Lake!"

"Well, _what_ do you know about that!" breathlessly murmured Marion in
her crooning voice. "A lake like that on top of a mountain--in
weather like this, doesn't it sound like heaven?" She began to pick
the pineapple out of her fruit salad, dabbing each morsel in the tiny
mound of whipped cream.

"We'd need some outing clothes, of course. I've been thinking that a
couple of plain khaki suits--you know--and these leggings that lace
down the side, would be all we'd really need. I wish you'd go out home
with me instead of going to a show. Fred will be home, and he can
explain the details of this thing better than I can. If it were a
difficult stanza of Browning, now--but I haven't much talent for
business. And seriously, Marion, you must know all about this before
you really say yes or no. And it's time you had some real object in
life--time you settled down to regard your life seriously. I love you
just the way you are, dear, but for your own sake you must learn to
think for yourself and not act so much upon impulse. I couldn't bear
to go off without you, and stay a whole year, maybe--but if you should
go, not knowing just what it was going to be like, and then be
disappointed--you see, dear, you might come to blaming poor Kate."

"Why, I wouldn't do anything of the kind! Even if it did turn out to
be something I didn't care for, it would be so much better than
staying here with you gone, that I don't see how I could mind very
much. You know, Kate, I'm just crazy about the country. I'd like to
sleep right outside! And I think a log cabin is the dearest way to
live--don't you? And we'd hike, wouldn't we?--up to the lake and all
around. I've got enough money to buy a gun, and if there's any hunting