years in one of these hollows, buying shelter from the winter winds
at the cost of an outlook over sea and shore.

It was a large price to pay. The view from the summit of the little
hill a few hundred yards away was superb--a wonder even on that
wonderful coast of Maine where mountain and sea meet together,
forest and flood kiss each other.

But I suppose the old Yankee farmer knew what he wanted when he
paid the price and snuggled his house in the hollow. I am certain
the Hermanns knew what they wanted when they bought the whole
point and perched their house on the very top of the hill, where
all the winds of heaven might visit it as roughly as they pleased,
but where nothing could rob the outlook of its ever-changing splendor
and mystery, its fluent wonder and abiding charm.

You see, the Hermanns knew what they wanted because they had come
through a lot of trouble. I met them when they were young--no matter
how many years ago--when they were in the thick of it.

Alice Mackaye and Will Hermann had the rare luck to fall in love--a
very real and great love--when they were in their early twenties.
You would think that extraordinary piece of good fortune would have
been enough to set them up for life, wouldn't you? But no. There
was an Obstacle. And that Obstacle came very near wrecking them
both.

Will Hermann was an artist and the son of an artist. The love of
beauty ran in his blood. Otherwise he was poor. He earned a decent
living by his painting, but each year's living depended on each