"But it's funny, isn't it," said Lee, "that so many people get on famously together until they are actually married, and then they begin to fight like cats? I knew a girl who was engaged to a man for five years. You'd think they'd get to know each other pretty well in that time, wouldn't you? But they didn't. They hadn't been married six months before they hated each other." "And that proves," said Renier, "that long engagements are a mistake." "Smarty!" exclaimed Lee. "I suppose your brother'll be getting married right away, won't he? Haven't they liked each other for ever so long?" "M'm!" Lee nodded. "But Arthur never does anything right away. He does too much mooning and wool-gathering. If a united family can get him to the altar in less than a year they'll have accomplished wonders. There's one thing, though--when we do get him married good and proper, he'll stay married. He's like that at all games. It comes natural to him to keep his eyes in the boat. He's got the finest and sweetest nature of any man in this world, _I_ think." "Of course, you except present company?" "Heavens, yes!" cried Lee, and they both laughed. Then, suddenly, Lee looked him in the eyes quite solemnly. "I wasn't fooling," she said, "not entirely. I _do_ think you're fine and sweet. I didn't always, but I do now." There was levity in Renier's words but not in his voice. "This," he said, "so far has been a perfectly good Tuesday." "Whatever we do together," said Lee, "you always give me the best of it. It's been a good summer." "Do you feel as if summer was over, too?" She nodded. "That's funny, isn't it? Because it's nowhere near over, is it? Maybe it's the excitement of the Oducalchis' arrival and your brother's engagement. It makes you sort of feel as if there wasn't time to settle back into the regular life and get things going again before the leaves fall." He spoke. And from the fine striped maple under which they sat there fell, and fluttered slowly into Lee's lap, a great yellowing leaf ribbed with incipient scarlet. "That only means," said Renier--but there was a kind of awe in his voice--"that this particular tree has indigestion." And they sat for a time in silence and looked at the leaf. And lo! Arthur came upon them, smiling. "I was looking for you two," he said. "I thought maybe you'd do me a great favor. I've got to play host, and----" "Nobody would miss us!" exclaimed Lee. "They wouldn't?" said Arthur. "I'll bet you anything you like that, during your absence, you will both be mentioned among the missing, by name, at least five times." "What'll you bet?" asked Lee eagerly. "Nobody ever thinks of _us_. Nobody ever mentions _us_. Nobody even loves _us_. What'll you bet?" "Anything you like," said Arthur, "and if necessary I will take charge of the five personal mentionings and make them myself!"