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 laughing nervously. "You gave me a start. I didn't know you were here."

"I'm glad I am," he asserted. "Just now I'd rather be here than anywhere else in the world. It is I who should beg your pardon for startling you."

There could be no question, his bearing and words marked the gentleman; if doubts had troubled her, they fled at once. In the garb of the baseball field he had looked well; in a suit of gray tweed, negligee shirt, and russet shoes, he looked far better. His soft hat lay on the ground near the book. She, too, felt her heart beating fast.

"When I sought this quiet spot," he went on, as she still remained silent, "I scarcely anticipated the pleasure of beholding a wood nymph. And hark!—the pipes of Pan!"

The sound of music came from some spot near at hand.

"It's Tommy's harmonica," she laughed. "Tommy," she called again, "where are you, you rascal?"

She was answered by an elfish burst of laughter, followed by a rustling in the bushes and the appearance of a head of tousled, reddish hair, a freckled, snub-nosed face, and a pair of mis