“Yes. Did you ever know anybody who had succeeded half so well in piecing together and absorbing into a harmonized whole all the divergent, artificial elements that enter into the conventional world to-day? Her character might be called a triumph of synthesis. For she has actually achieved an individuality--that is what always surprises me when I think of her. She has put the puzzle picture together, she has become a person.” He remembered, with a start, that this was the exact word Mrs. Larrabbee had used about Alison Parr. If he had searched the world, he could not have found a greater contrast than that between these two women. And when she spoke again, he was to be further struck by her power of logical insight. “Grace wants me because she thinks I have become the fashion--for the same reason that Charlotte Plimpton wants me. Only there is this difference--Grace will know the exact value of what I shall have done. Not that she thinks me a Le Notre”--Alison laughed--“What I mean is, she sees behind, she sees why it is fashionable to have a garden, since she has worked out the values of that existence. But there!” Alison added, with a provocative touch that did not escape him, “I am picking your parishioners to pieces again.” “You have more right than I,” he replied, “they have been your friends since childhood.” “I thought you had gone away,” she said. “Why?” he demanded. Had she been to church again? “My father told me before he left that you were to take a cruise with him on the yacht he has chartered.” “He wrote me from New York--I was unable to go,” Hodder said slowly. He felt her gaze upon him, but resolutely refused to meet it.... They walked on in silence until they came to the more open spaces near the edge of the Park, thronged that Saturday evening by crowds which had sought the city's breathing space. Perfect trees cast long, fantastic shadows across the lawns, fountains flung up rainbows from the midst of lakes; children of the tenements darted hither and thither, rolled and romped on the grass; family parties picnicked everywhere, and a very babel of tongues greeted the ear--the languages of Europe from Sweden to Italy. Suddenly an exclamation from her aroused and thrilled him. “Isn't it wonderful how happy they are, and with what simple pleasures they are satisfied! I often come over here on Saturdays and Sundays, just to talk to them.” “Talk to them!” he echoed stupidly. “In their own languages?” “Oh, I know a little German and Italian, though I can't lay claim to Czech,” she answered gayly. “Why are you so surprised that I should possess such modest accomplishments?” “It's not the accomplishments.” He hesitated.