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 down at the noisy little stream. "I wonder what there was in it," he muttered, "to make Miles look like that."

Meanwhile, seated on the top of a wall farther along the sunlit road, Miles was reading the note again.

"I am leaving Maple Green this morning for home. My vacation is finished. I didn't tell you this yesterday when you left me at the Inn, why, I hardly know. But this morning it seems rude to go away without saying good-bye to one of the few acquaintances I have here. And I have something else to say which is awfully difficult. Please don't try to see me again. You see I am assuming that you would have cared to do so. I may be mistaken, and I hope I am, for friends are not so many that I can drive one away without regret. I have enjoyed your acquaintance and I shall watch for your books eagerly, and shall read them with a new interest, proud to think that mine was the honor of being present at the inception of the author's first painting. I shall always feel sorry for the world since it has missed that masterpiece! But