Page:Stanwood Pier--The ancient grudge.djvu/413

402 early-changing foliage flashed like brilliant orange and red pennons among the climbing hosts of sober green. At the base of the mountain was the narrow line of the lake, sapphire blue in the clear light; a spire, the roofs of four or five houses emerged above the trees and indicated the settlement on the shore.

"Yes," said Floyd. "I should think you would like your mountain and your lake." But though he had been impressed by the beauty which the sudden opening up of the valley had revealed, he was more interested in glancing away from it to his companion's face. He wondered if the arrangement of the brown veil, drawn up above her eyes, contributed in some curious way to an expression softer than any he had hoped for—or whether such a look came upon her face in the presence of something that, like the mountain, she loved. When she spoke her voice seemed gentler; the feeling expanded in him that she was, unreservedly, a very pleasant person to be with.

She turned in at a white pillared gateway and drove up an avenue of maple-trees to a large white colonial house; an old-fashioned garden blooming with asters was laid out in front of it; the low box hedges stretched away across the lawn almost to the edge of the lake.

"You're going to stay with us," Marion said. "When I told the family you were coming, they insisted I should go after you and bring you here."

"Thank you; I'd like to stay—if you did n't go after me unwillingly. Your saying your family insisted—"

"Oh," she answered, with a laugh, "a girl can make her family the scapegoat for a great many of her own forward acts. I'll have you shown to your room, and then you must hurry down and have a cup of tea with me."

Floyd, following the butler up the staircase, was decidedly of the opinion that a girl who would always rise at once to one's little joke and carry it on so naturally was a pleasant person to be with.

When he came downstairs, she was standing by a win-