“No,” he answered, “I haven’t seen it. I didn’t see that it was necessary. I’ve had the water analyzed. That was enough.” “But you ought to see it,” she continued, still looking at the end of the switch. “It’s a wonderful spring. Everybody says so. I discovered it.” Her face, as she began speaking, flushed faintly and then deeper. When she had finished the color was spread over it in a clear transparent blush. “I doubt whether I’ll be able to get there,” he replied with just a trace of stiffness in his manner. “It’s quite a walk, I understand, and it’s so hot--” She suddenly raised her eyes and moved toward him, her look one of flushed embarrassment, but her manner urgent and determined. “I’ll take you there,” she said hurriedly. “I know a way that’s quite shady, a path hardly anybody knows of. I found it, the spring and the path both, and I would so like to show it to you.” Her voice fell to the key of coaxing, which was belied by her countenance, full of a keen, waiting anxiousness. She seemed to the man to be tremulously hanging on his word of consent. “I guess I’ll have to go,” he said, looking down at her with eyes from which all disapproval had gone. “I’ll come up here for you--let’s see! The late afternoon’s the best time because it’s cooler. Say five. How’s that?” “Here?” she said, looking away uneasily. “No, don’t come here. You know--” she drew closer to him, and resting her finger-tips on the lapel of his coat pressed them gently against his chest, half whispering--“this is to be a secret expedition. No one must know about it but us two.” The Colonel backed away, eying her with tragical gravity from under his down-drawn brows. “Look here, young woman,” he said, “what are you up to? Are you trying to kidnap the Colonel?” Her dimple came, but no further indication of amusement disturbed the fluttered uneasiness of her countenance. “No, no,” she said quickly; then tilting her head to one side and looking at him cajolingly, “but how I would like to!” “I don’t think it’s safe for me to go,” he answered. “I’ve a suspicion you’re some kind of wood nymph or fairy who steals good-looking young men like me and keeps them in the woods for playmates. Can you give me any guaranty that I’ll reappear?” “I’ll lead you back myself. And you will go? That’s settled. Well, listen:--down the road before you come to the turn there’s a break in the fence. It’s near the large oak that throws a limb over the road. I’ll be there waiting for you at half-past four. Five’s too late. And the path I spoke of goes up right behind the oak and is ever so much shorter than the one everybody takes. That’s this way, back of the cow-shed and the garden.”