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"Yes, I know, dear But there's soinstinct would not be gainsaid "There's so ot the place to explore, and the house to put in order, and--oh, thousands of things! And we must be very sensible and very wise, you and I, boy We're not children, you kno that we've lost our hoot to be done over again"

"Except to learn to love you!" answered Stern, letting her go with reluctance

She laughed back at him over her fur-clad shoulder as her sandaled feet followed the dim remnants of whatthe beach, leading up to the bungalow

Through the encroaching forest and the tangle of the degenerate apple-trees they could see the concrete walls, with here or there a bit of white still gleah the enlacements of ancient vines that had enveloped the whole structure--woodbine, ivy, wisterias, and theroses, red and yellow, that ever o first and clear the way for you," he said cheerily His big bulk crashed down the undergrowth His hands held back the thorns and briers and the whipping hardbacks Together they slowly made way toward the house

The orchard had lost all seularity, for in the thousand years since the hand of man had pruned or cared for it Mother Nature had planted and replanted it tinarled and crooked the trees were, as the spine-tree souls in Dante's dolorosa selva

Here or there a pine had rooted and grown tall, killing the lesser tribe of green things underneath

Warm lay the sun there A pleasant carpet of last year's leaves and pine-spills covered the earth

"It's all ready and waiting for us, all ely "I wonder what old Van A would think of his estate if he could see it now? And ould he say to our having it? You know, Van was pretty ugly to me at one tiotten now Only this is certainly an odd turn of fate"

He helped the girl over a fallen log, rotted with moss and lichens "It's one awful ets back into shape, we'll have order out of chaos before you know it Some fine day you and I will drive our sixty horse-power car up an asphalt road here, and--"