He was tempted to answer, but that was unnecessary; for the branches parted, and she appeared in full view, pausing instantly on beholding him, her blue eyes wide with surprise, her flushed cheeks quickly taking on a deeper tint. She was dressed in white, an occasional ribbon adding a livening bit of color, and the sight of her figure, poised against that dark-green background, slender, startled, entrancing, set his heart thumping. Nor was his voice quite natural as he hastily rose, bowed, and asked: “Did you call me, Miss Harting?” “Oh――oh, I beg your pardon!” she returned, 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 mischievous, dancing eyes that widened at the sight of Locke. “Gee!” said the boy, coming into full view. “I didn’t know he was here. Where’s the rest of the bunch, Miss Janet?” One soiled hand gripped the harmonica. “You see what you did by running away, Tommy,” said the girl, in mock severity. “You made me disturb Mr. Locke.” “For which offense, Tommy,” smiled the young man, “I’ll stand treat at the candy store the first chance I get. While not in the least desiring to encourage insubordination, I must say I’m glad you ran away.” Janet flashed him a look, and her eyes dropped before his gaze. She could feel the flush in her cheeks. “I came out for a walk with some of the little fellows of my Sunday-school class,” she hastened to explain. “Tommy Murphy is always up to his pranks. One day he got lost in the woods, and they didn’t find him until eleven o’clock that night.” “Never got lost,” denied the boy instantly. “My old man give me a larrupin’, ’n’ I jest run off to go West an’ fight Injuns, but it come dark ’n’ I had ter camp in the woods, ’n’ they ketched me ’n’ took me back home. My maw, she didn’t let my paw larrup me no more fer that, fer she knowed I was desprut, an’ I’d said that I’d run erway ag’in if I was thrashed any more. When a desprut man says that, folks better be careful what they do to him.”