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 RENTAL LIBRARY 
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 2528 SAN VICENTE BLVD. 
 SANTA MONICA
 
 6 

 
 Books by Anne Warner 
 
 A WOMAN'S WILL 1904 
 
 SUSAN CLEGG AND HER FRIEND MRS. 
 
 LATHROP 1904 
 
 THE REJUVENATION OF AUNT MARY . 1905 
 
 SUSAN CLEGG AND HER NEIGHBORS' 
 
 AFFAIRS 1906 
 
 SUSAN CLEGG AND A MAN IN THE 
 
 HOUSE 1907 
 
 AN ORIGINAL GENTLEMAN .... 1908 
 
 IN A MYSTERIOUS WAY 1909 
 
 YOUR CHILD AND MINE 1909 
 
 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES .... 1910
 
 JUST BETWEEN 
 THEMSELVES 
 
 A Book About Dichtenberg 
 
 BY 
 
 ANNE WARNER 
 
 Author of " The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary," 
 
 " Susan Clegg and her Friend Mrs. Lathrop," 
 
 " In a Mysterious Way," etc. 
 
 FRONTISPIECE IN COLOR BY 
 WILL GREFE 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 
 1910
 
 Copyright, 1910, 
 BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 
 
 All rights reserved 
 Published, April, 1910 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, IT. 8. A.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. MRS. DUNN MEETS GRACE .... 1 
 
 II. DlCHTENBERG LOOMS HlGH .... 11 
 
 III. GRACE MEETS THE MEN 28 
 
 IV. BRIGHT MORNING DREAMS .... 38 
 V. DUNN MEETS MRS. ELLERSLIE ... 51 
 
 VI. THEY ALL TAKE TEA AND SOME GO OUT 
 
 TO WALK 65 
 
 VII. THE INS AND THE OUTS 86 
 
 VIII. THE NEXT MORNING 104 
 
 IX. WHEN WOMEN COMBINE 122 
 
 X. WHERE No ONE WORRIES . . . . 137 
 
 XL LEFT TOGETHER 151 
 
 XII. To ARMS AGAIN 161 
 
 XIII. AND So FORTH 167 
 
 XIV. THE OVERTURNING WORM 178 
 
 XV. MRS. ELLERSLIE'S SIDE OF IT ... 191 
 
 XVI. THE FATAL DAY 207 
 
 XVII. MRS. ELLERSLIE PACKS 225 
 
 XVIII. SAY "Au EEVOIR" 232 
 
 XIX. THE PICNIC 239 
 
 XX. FINISHED! , 260 
 
 2227878
 
 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 MRS. DUNN MEETS GRACE 
 
 THE Berlin train came slowly yet impressively into 
 the Brunswick station, the engineer's head out of 
 his window being the first of a long row of heads 
 out of a long row of windows. Everybody was either 
 expecting friends, or keeping watch for a porter, or 
 doing both. 
 
 Clang-clang-clang, the train came along, and 
 the imposing station-master in full uniform ad- 
 vanced to meet it. The train, being bred up under 
 strict German discipline, recognized the station- 
 master and stopped with slow dignity. The station- 
 master saluted the first guard, and the first guard 
 saluted the station-master; then the other guards 
 hurried along, unfastening all the doors that had not 
 been already unfastened from within, and the crowd 
 began to climb out with cries of Bitte, Danke, Adieu, 
 meine Damen, Gepdcktrdger ! and other useful bits of 
 travel lingo. As they poured down the platform, their 
 anxious friends came pouring up the platform to 
 
 1
 
 2 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 meet them, and then, with much kissing above and 
 many dachshunds below, the affair slowly began to 
 clear up. 
 
 Mrs. Dunn stood far down towards the engine, and 
 had the strained eager look of one who has been 
 told that this will be the Berlin train and yet has 
 had sufficient German experience to know that it 
 may be from Hanover after all. Mrs. Dunn had de- 
 cided that in any case it would be wisest to just 
 stand still and wait until Grace came along, suppos- 
 ing this proved to be her train! It would be so easy 
 to miss the girl if she ran up and down looking, and 
 then if she missed her, she would n't know but that 
 it wasn't the Berlin train after all. Mrs. Dunn's 
 German was not her weak point in the ordinary ac- 
 ceptance of the term; it was actually the weakest 
 thing about her, for Mrs. Dunn was a strong character. 
 But she never spoke German if she could possibly 
 help it, and being short and stout and inclined to 
 get red if she ran, she never ran if she could possibly 
 help that, either. 
 
 It was only a minute or so till the girl came safely 
 along, a tall, slight girl, with big blue eyes and pretty 
 babyish hair that was yellow and curled. She wore a 
 plain, well-fitting suit, a freshly laundered French 
 lingerie waist, a very handsome large green hat, and 
 had two umbrellas and an Alpenstock hi her hand, 
 the three strapped together.
 
 MRS. DUNN MEETS GRACE 3 
 
 "My dear, you look altogether too civilized for 
 Dichtenberg," laughed Mrs. Dunn, embracing her, 
 "and yet you do look so nice, too. What a pretty 
 hat! But what is the Alpenstock for?" 
 
 "To climb with," said Grace; "I bought it on pur- 
 pose for the mountain, you know." 
 
 "Oh, but, my child, there are no mountains to 
 climb, just the mildest, sunniest slopes." 
 
 The girl's face fell, "No mountains! I thought 
 that it was the Harz." 
 
 "It 's the very outermost edge of the Harz. The 
 Harz begins just behind the house. It 's such an 
 interesting place. You can see the Bracken from up 
 on top of the castle tower. Goethe's Brocken, you 
 know, where Faust and the witches danced. Oh, 
 you '11 be just wild over the place. There 's a well 
 eighty metres deep. I bought a book that tells all 
 about it. But where is your baggage receipt, dear ? 
 We must be seeing to that, you know." Mrs. Dunn 
 paused, completely out of breath. 
 
 "I gave it to the porter with my bags." 
 
 "Which porter? And I 've managed to get a bach- 
 elor, after all, dear." 
 
 "That one there. A bachelor! Who?" 
 
 " He '11 get the trunks ; we have n't to worry. And 
 now I '11 tell you what we '11 do ; we '11 go straight 
 out in front of the station and get coffee, and I '11 tell 
 you all about everybody."
 
 4 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "Can you get coffee out in front of the station? " 
 
 "Yes, you can in Brunswick. They have a very 
 nice restaurant out in front here. I '11 tell the 
 porter to have your things and a carriage ready at 
 seven " 
 
 "At seven " 
 
 "The train doesn't go till' half-past, dear, and it 
 does n't go from this station ; it goes from the West- 
 bahnhof. That 's what makes it so difficult to go 
 from here. It 's easier from Hildesheim. The train 
 goes from both stations in Hildesheim. On account 
 of Derneburg, you know. You change at Derneburg. 
 It sounds complicated, but it 's really very simple. 
 Where did I put my platform ticket? Oh, here it 
 is." They went through the exit gate. 
 
 "But why can't we go from this station? " 
 
 "Why, my dear, we can't, that 's all. That 's the 
 awful nuisance in the country here ; the country lines 
 have their own crazy little stations most anywhere off 
 in the outskirts." 
 
 "But is there no train until seven?" 
 
 "No, and really I thank heaven there isn't, for 
 I have half a million things to do. Hammer and 
 tacks and alcohol and paper napkins to buy, and tea- 
 cloths and spirit-lamps and, oh, I don't know what 
 all. My husband is a perfect dear, but he is particu- 
 lar and he wants some certain comforts always, you 
 know, and even if he did n't the rest of you would,
 
 MRS. DUNN MEETS GRACE 5 
 
 for you could n't live there without them. Oh, Grace, 
 it 's the most adorable place! Such a view and then 
 the old castle! Barbarossa was actually there once, 
 and Mansfeld blew it up, and I 've such a pleasant 
 party." 
 
 "The actor Mansfield?" 
 
 "No, no, dear, the other one the general or 
 prince or whatever he was. But, Grace, we 're going 
 to have the nicest party. I didn't have time 
 to write you, but they are all just lovely, all of 
 them." 
 
 "Who have you asked?" 
 
 "Well, not very many. Between ourselves, I never 
 think large parties are a success for long hi a lonesome 
 place. Some one is sure to have a quarrel or fall in 
 love or do something of that sort. And then it 's 
 quite impossible to get along pleasantly after that, of 
 course." 
 
 " Who is coming? Who is the bachelor? " 
 
 "The Ellerslies are the married people; you re- 
 member them, don't you?" 
 
 "Not very well. Do I know the man?" 
 
 " My dear, they 're charming, simply charming ; 
 both awfully good looking and passionately in love 
 with each other, of course." 
 
 "How nice!" Grace sounded sincere. 
 
 "Yes, isn't it?" There was no doubt about Mrs. 
 Dunn's sincerity. "Bob and I are always happy to-
 
 6 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 gether, too, and that leaves the young man to you, 
 just as it should be." 
 
 " Oh, yes, about the young man? " 
 
 "Well, he is n't so very young; he 's about thirty. 
 Nellie suggested him, but I 've always known him, too. 
 I had to consult her because Frank is so awfully jeal- 
 ous. And that reminds me, dear, you '11 be just a 
 little careful about Frank, won't you? Nellie is so 
 very jealous, too, you know." 
 
 "How do you mean? Is n't he her husband?" 
 
 " Oh, yes, yes, of course, he 's her husband ; but 
 still, you must be careful about walking with him, or 
 looking up in his face, you know. Of course, you 
 would n't mean anything, but she would n't like it." 
 
 " I '11 be careful, Cousin Lizzie ; are they all there 
 now?" 
 
 "Oh, there's a waiter! What do you want for 
 coffee? I want potato salad and Munich beer." 
 
 "I think I '11 have chocolate." 
 
 "Have just what you like, you know; that is 
 going to be the beauty of my plan; every one is to 
 have just exactly what he or she likes. I made that 
 a distinct understanding in getting the party up." 
 
 "How nice!" Grace commented; they were seated 
 now at one of the little tables upon the terrace. "Is 
 Mr. Dunn there now?" 
 
 "No, dear." Mrs. Dunn made an effort to rally her 
 faculties after the giving of the order in German. "I
 
 MRS. DUNN MEETS GRACE 7 
 
 could n't have had him or any one come until I was 
 settled. I 'd rather any of them came sooner than 
 Bob, though. Bob can't stand moving or settling; 
 he hates all that kind of thing. It simply drives him 
 wild. He can't bear to be the least little bit upset 
 or uncomfortable. I left him in Hanover. They 're 
 having opera there this week, and he 's passionately 
 fond of music. I 've been so heavenly glad that he 
 was happy in a good hotel ; there 's been so much to 
 do and it 's been so awful getting the things up-hill 
 with only a donkey." 
 
 "Oh, is there a hill?" 
 
 "Of course. Dichtenberg, you know. Berg is 
 always a hill. This one is so stony, too." 
 
 "When are the others coming?" 
 
 " It is n't quite settled. The Ellerslies thought any 
 time after to-morrow and, don't mention it, but I 
 know that Mr. Belden will come on Thursday, surely. 
 I 've had to see to getting all their things up the 
 hill, too, and, oh, my dear, you don't know what it 
 is to see to other people's things on a steep hillside 
 with only a small donkey to carry all the freight." 
 
 Grace laughed. "Is n't there any omnibus?" 
 
 "My dear, there's nothing! There's absolutely 
 nothing! Just the good, plain, practical necessities of 
 life, and it stops right there. But such air, such 
 walks! Oh, it 's too good to be true. I don't mind 
 seeing to everything for everybody if we can just
 
 8 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 have a fortnight in the country! I do so love to be 
 in the country." 
 
 "It's very pretty, I suppose? Who did you say 
 the man was?" 
 
 "My dear, it 's lovely, it 's ideal. You '11 go wild 
 over it. And that castle! Otto IV. kept Christmas 
 there once. Just think ! There are sixteen bastions ; 
 you can walk around where they used to be. You 
 brought your paints, did n't you? " 
 
 "Yes, indeed. But, Cousin Lizzie, who " 
 
 " You '11 go wild over the views. I told you, did n't 
 I, that it 's a castle where Barbarossa came? We can 
 dig it out, such a nice place to dig ; you scrape the 
 dirt back of you right down the hill. There 's a book 
 all about it ; I bought one. Only fancy, there 's 
 
 ' ' How romantic ! Is it far to walk ? Is it a quiet ' ' 
 
 "Far! It 's right back of the house. Will Belden 
 is just going to be crazy about it, I know ; you '11 like 
 him so much, Grace ; he 's such a nice fellow. Nellie 
 Ellerslie and I have known him for years. I told you 
 that it was she who suggested him for our party. I 
 really was afraid to pick out the single man myself. 
 You know Frank Ellerslie is so jealous. It had to be 
 some tried and true friend of theirs. It would spoil 
 everything if the Ellerslies had trouble, you know. 
 And they have the name of being apt to have trouble." 
 
 "I can just remember Mrs. Ellerslie," said Grace, 
 thoughtfully ; " she was married a month or so before
 
 MRS. DUNN MEETS GRACE 9 
 
 we came over here to live. She 's very, very pretty, 
 isn't she?" 
 
 " She 's a beauty. And her husband is just as good 
 to look at as she is ; hi fact, I 'm not surprised that 
 people say that he makes her quite as miserable as 
 she does him. I often think that a woman who is n't 
 pretty has a great deal to be grateful for. Not that 
 I 'd want Nellie to lose any of her good looks! I just 
 love to look at her, she 's so pretty. I 'm awfully 
 fond of her. And I like him, too. Well, there '11 be 
 absolutely no one to beguile either of them here, 
 thank goodness. Will Belden is their own friend, and 
 Bob is terribly fussy and makes awful rows over 
 nothing, but he does n't know that there is another 
 woman in the world except me, I verily believe." 
 Mrs. Dunn's voice sank tenderly. 
 
 "I 'm sure that we are going to have a good time," 
 said the young girl, thoughtfully. "I'm so glad to 
 think that you asked me. I take it as a real honor. 
 I do hope that Mr. Mr. Belden is nice." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn smiled and patted her hand. "I'm 
 sure that we are going to have a good time," she said, 
 smiling. "I don't see how we can help but have a 
 good time. Six thoroughly congenial people hi a beau- 
 tiful, interesting spot, and nothing on the face of the 
 earth to bother or upset any one. And Will Belden 
 is nice, dear, I can assure you of that." 
 
 For quite an hour they sat there, chatting and ab-
 
 10 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 sorbing nourishment. Then they paid the waiter, left 
 the restaurant and went out with this little country 
 memoranda : 
 
 Paper Matches 
 
 Envelopes Fly-paper 
 
 Pencils Tear-cloths 
 
 Pens String 
 
 Two packs cards Clothes-brush 
 
 Hammer and tacks Ink 
 
 Alcohol Paper napkins 
 
 "What a lot of things to buy!" Grace commented, 
 open-eyed. 
 
 "My dear, this is nothing to what I have bought 
 and gotten up that hill already! Chairs and a book- 
 case, and soap and, oh, I don't know what all. Such 
 loads of stuff!" 
 
 "What made you bring so much?" 
 
 "My dear, I simply had to. Bob wants to be com- 
 fortable and he just simply has to be comfortable." 
 
 "But why do you buy things for all the rest?" 
 
 "Oh, my dear," Mrs. Dunn's face was very expres- 
 sive, " I see you 've never camped out." 
 
 "No," said Grace, "I never have." 
 
 "Then you have a great deal to learn, dear. If 
 you want to have any little comforts for yourself, 
 you must provide every one else first."
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 DICHTENBERG LOOMS HIGH 
 
 IT was a little after eight-thirty on that same day 
 that the sweet little Landesbahn puffed prettily up 
 beside the station of Dichtenberg, quivered modestly, 
 trembled slightly, and then stopped altogether. 
 
 Mrs. Dunn hustled Grace off on to the graveled 
 platform with an energy worthy of a bigger engine, 
 and then hurried forward to see if the trunks were 
 all there. Two or three men were assisting the 
 Dichtenberg station-master to unload, and the post- 
 man had stood his yellow mail-cart up on end 
 and was lending a willing hand with a cheer good 
 to behold. The freight seemed to be mostly milk- 
 cans, and a wise and knowing old man stood by and 
 eyed the cans with an expression which allowed no 
 can to escape. 
 
 "He drives them up to the Domane" said Mrs. 
 Dunn, explaining the idiosyncrasies of her new abode 
 to Grace. 
 
 "Drives what up?" 
 
 "The milk-cans." 
 
 "What is the Domdnef"
 
 12 
 
 "I can't just find out with my German, but it 
 owns all the country and all the milk-cans here- 
 abouts." 
 
 "Oh!" cried the girl, "there are my trunks!" 
 
 "So they are; but, my goodness me, where is the 
 Eselwagen? it ought to be here somewhere." 
 
 "What is an Eselwagen?" 
 
 "A donkey, dear; the donkey was coming down to 
 meet us!" 
 
 "Alone!" 
 
 "No, they send a boy with him, of course. Do 
 just step around behind the Domdne milk- wagon and 
 see if you can see either. Look close ; it 's a very 
 little donkey." 
 
 Grace walked around behind the Domane's milk- 
 wagon and saw nothing but a darkness total and 
 complete. Trying to investigate further, she stepped 
 into a ditch full of water. 
 
 "Ow!" she cried, in complete astonishment. 
 
 "My dear, you stepped in the ditch, I know that 
 you did." It was Mrs. Dunn's voice toning to real 
 distress through the Stygian blackness. "I ought to 
 have remembered and warned you. You see I came 
 on a morning train myself, and learned the ditch by 
 daylight. Did you get very wet?" 
 
 "Only one foot." 
 
 "That 's good. I believe that they must have for- 
 gotten to send the donkey they do sometimes
 
 DICHTENBERG LOOMS HIGH 13 
 
 or perhaps he ran away. Anyhow God bless my 
 soul!" 
 
 "Oh, Cousin Lizzie, where are you?" It was the 
 girl's frightened voice this tune. "What has hap- 
 pened to you?" 
 
 "I I 'm right here. It 's just that I fell over the 
 donkey ; he 's right here, too. I never knew them 
 to stand him here before. Now I wonder who came 
 down with him!" 
 
 "Who generally comes down with him?" 
 
 "I don't know. You see, all I know is that the 
 donkey brings the things up. Wait a minute until I 
 go and ask who is here with him." 
 
 She disappeared, and Grace stood still. There were 
 some far-distant twinkles that looked too near to be 
 stars, but the main outlook was not brilliant. 
 
 Presently Mrs. Dunn returned. "I 'm so relieved. 
 The boy is here. They don't know just where he is 
 right now, but when he comes for the donkey they '11 
 give him all our things. They 've piled them up 
 together." 
 
 "Is it safe to leave them outside?" 
 
 "Oh, yes; and now, dear, we must start, for we 
 have an awfully long walk up-hill. I don't know, 
 I 'm sure, what Bob will say to this hill ; he hates to 
 walk up-hill. But he need n't ever come down again 
 until we go, not unless he deliberately chooses to 
 do so."
 
 14 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "Is it so very far?" 
 
 "Well, it's a good ways. They call it twenty 
 minutes, but I guess three quarters of an hour is 
 nearer. Oh, Grace, how you will enjoy the castle! 
 It 's so interesting! My book says that there were 
 secret passages! I declare it gives you such a queer 
 feeling. And they found fifteen skeletons hi the dun- 
 geons! We'll take coffee there some day and see 
 them all. Look out, dear, we turn here. Oh, you 
 tripped against the sidewalk. There 's a sidewalk 
 along here for a little way, and I forgot it in the 
 dark." 
 
 "Is that the Gasihofaheadl" 
 
 "No, my dear, that 's the Molkerei. It 's " 
 
 "Oh, mercy on us, Cousin Lizzie, what is it?" 
 
 " I just started to tell you, dear, it 's the Molkerei; 
 doesn't it smell terribly? But just beyond it is a 
 real windmill. It turns all day hi the most pictur- 
 esque manner it 's ever so interesting!" 
 
 " Dear me, I 'm glad we don't live near that Mol- 
 kerei. What is a Molkerei, anyway?" 
 
 " I don't know, I 'm sure. I believe it means milk 
 in some connection. You know my German is so 
 poor. Oh, dear, I 'm afraid that Bob and the Ellers- 
 lies will be fearfully vexed over this hill." 
 
 "I don't mind it at all. How far are we now?" 
 
 "We aren't even started. There are these two 
 long straight stretches, and then a frightful hill. I
 
 DICHTENBERG LOOMS HIGH 15 
 
 declare it is enough to make even my legs ache to 
 only think of that hill!" 
 
 "Is it so very bad?" 
 
 "It 's steep, and then it 's so stony. I do hope all 
 the trunks will get up to-night. It 's so hard getting 
 things up. Sometimes I almost lose my patience 
 only, of course, I never do. You see the Esel (Esel is 
 German for donkey) is so very little." 
 
 "But, Cousin Lizzie, you talk as if you had been 
 here months. When did you come?" 
 
 " I feel as if I had been here months ; but it 's only 
 a week. But, oh, Grace, how I have worked! You 
 don't know all I Ve done, none of you ever will 
 know. The place was simple, and my husband is 
 so particular. I even had to get them the brown 
 cream to polish his tan shoes. Is n't this hill awful? 
 I get so out of breath." 
 
 "Is that light ahead, the hotel?" 
 
 "Oh, dear, no, it's ever so much farther up the 
 hill. I do wonder how Nellie will take this hill ; she 
 always wears high-heeled shoes, you know." 
 
 "But they 've camped out so much, have n't they? 
 I thought he was a great sportsman." 
 
 " Yes, I believe they have camped out a great deal. 
 But you never can tell anything about Americans 
 camping out. A camp in America may have porce- 
 lain tubs in it, you know. Oh, I suppose that she '11 
 have some walking shoes. Probably I worry be-
 
 16 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 cause I 'm so tired. Whenever I walk up this hill I 
 get fearfully scared over thinking what Bob will say 
 to it." 
 
 "Where 's Bobby; I never thought to ask." 
 
 "He 's in Hanover; or rather, he 's just outside of 
 Hanover. I do wish he was here, but his school opens 
 now, and maybe it 's just as well, because a child is 
 hard to manage in a grown-up party." 
 
 "Is he as ciinning as ever? He was so cunning." 
 
 "He's pretty cunning yet. And he 's so good- 
 tempered. Can you see those poplars to the right? 
 Napoleon planted them." 
 
 "Himself!" 
 
 "His men, of course. He had this way built to 
 march his troops well, I really don't know where 
 he did march his troops. But Magdeburg is just be- 
 yond Brunswick, and he took that, anyway." 
 
 "What made him have just one little short row 
 planted?" 
 
 "I don't know. Oh, my, the hill never seemed so 
 long before. But you '11 love the castle, Grace, 
 it 's " 
 
 "Is that light ahead, the hotel?" 
 
 "No, dear, it isn't. We turn there, and it gets 
 steeper. Oh, my, but I 'm out of breath!" 
 
 "Isn't there any way to get a carriage?" 
 
 "All they have is plows and oxen. I know Bob 's 
 going to be furious the first time that he goes up
 
 DICHTENBERG LOOMS HIGH 17 
 
 there. There ; s just that one thing about my husband 
 he does so hate to make an effort." 
 
 "But he wanted to come, did n't he?" 
 
 "Wanted to come! He 's crazy about it. Only he 
 won't like this hill. I 'm afraid that no one will like 
 the hill; but then, we never need to go down once 
 we 're up there. There 's nothing to go down for." 
 
 "Where is the forest; behind the house?" 
 
 "Yes, right back of the house. So handy. Such a 
 lovely wood, too. We turn here, dear ; is n't it steep? " 
 
 It was indeed steep. They toiled on in silence, 
 Mrs. Dunn puffing audibly. Presently she panted 
 "Turn here," and they turned into an allee between 
 planted pines. 
 
 "Now we're almost there," said the stout little 
 lady, weakly. "Oh, my goodness me, how mad Bob 
 will be when he first goes to the top." 
 
 Out rushed a little snapping, snarling dog, and 
 barked frantically and viciously at them. 
 
 "Will he bite?" Grace asked, anxiously. 
 
 " I don't believe so but I'm too out of 
 breath to care. Oh me! Oh my!" They had come 
 out of the allee into an open space full of summer- 
 hotel tables and chairs, and the older woman sank 
 down upon one of the seats. "Goodness, but I am 
 tired! I 've been on my feet every one of these days, 
 and such a lot to do." 
 
 The dog jumped about them, yelping and snapping.
 
 18 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "Did you say he did bite?" Grace asked, shaking 
 her umbrella at the vicious brute. 
 
 "Yes, he bites sometimes. He's the doctor's 
 dog and sometimes he bites patients. I don't be- 
 lieve that he ever bites other people." 
 
 "He bites patients!" 
 
 "He's bitten three children that were being 
 brought to consult him." 
 
 Grace looked at the dog with eyes of horror. 
 
 "He ought to be shot," she said, warmly. "Can't 
 Mr. Mr. Belden shoot him?" 
 
 "Well, dear, you see, it 's the doctor's only way to 
 get any patients ; that 's what I believe. It 's right 
 funny to see them sitting out in front side by side, 
 watching fiercely for some one to practice on. I 
 should n't like to interfere, you know." 
 
 Grace watched the dog warily. The dog watched 
 her back. 
 
 "Come, we '11 go on now," Mrs. Dunn said, getting 
 up. " I '11 just go around to the kitchen window and 
 say that we 're ready for supper, and then we '11 hurry 
 and wash. I bought a spirit lamp and kettle for each 
 room, so we can always have hot water whenever we 
 wish. I don't know what Bob will say to no bath- 
 tub, but you can't have everything cityfied in the 
 country." 
 
 She disappeared around the corner of one house 
 and Grace stood still by the corner of the other. A
 
 DICHTENBERG LOOMS HIGH 19 
 
 lantern hung up in the trees above shed a feeble and 
 uncertain light about. All that showed up well in its 
 reflection were the eyes of the doctor's dog as he 
 stood and glowered at the stranger. He had the head 
 of a canine Mephistopheles. 
 
 Mrs. Dunn returned almost at once. " Come, dear," 
 she said, briskly, "I said that we would be ready in 
 ten minutes, we She stopped short. "Isn't 
 some one calling?" 
 
 " It 's some one calling in the other house," said 
 Grace, "something about visitors. They don't mean 
 us." 
 
 " Oh, I thought some one was calling to us. Never 
 mind." They entered a long, straight hall with a 
 small lamp at the further end. "I thought maybe 
 that they She stopped again. " They do want 
 us," she said; "some one 's running." 
 
 It was Minna, the chambermaid; she was coming 
 after them, crying, "Gracious lady! Gracious lady!" 
 
 In the middle of the dark hall they all stopped. 
 
 "What is the matter?" Mrs. Dunn asked. 
 
 "One Herr is arrived!" 
 
 "Arrived!" 
 
 "Yes, this noon." 
 
 "This noon! Why, who can that be? " Mrs. Dunn 
 seemed a little stunned. "If Bob has come here and 
 not found me, I don't know what will happen! What 
 train did he come on? " she asked then.
 
 20 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "The gentleman did not come by train. He 
 walked." 
 
 ''Walked!" 
 
 "Yes, gracious lady." 
 
 "From where?" 
 
 "We do not know." 
 
 "My dear," said Mrs. Dunn to Grace, "it 's Frank 
 Ellerslie. He and Nellie have had one of their little 
 fusses and he has just walked off. They were at 
 Harzburg, and it 's a very fashionable place, and 
 that's just exactly what has happened. Oh dear! 
 Oh dear!" 
 
 Grace did n't know what to say. 
 
 "Which room did you put the gentleman in?" 
 Mrs. Dunn asked. 
 
 "He would not look through the rooms; he went 
 at once and took the end one, number eighteen." 
 
 "Why, Grace, that 's the room that I fixed for you. 
 The Ellerslies were to have the big one opposite mine." 
 
 Minna stood helpless and un-understanding. 
 
 "Is he up there now?" 
 
 " No, gracious lady ; he left his Rucksack and went 
 out at once and has not returned." 
 
 "Now, that's just Frank Ellerslie all over," cried 
 Mrs. Dunn, exasperatedly. " He 's mad at his wife, so 
 he just goes and upsets everything for everybody. 
 Well, I shall take his knapsack right out of that room 
 and put it in the room meant for them, and you shall
 
 DICHTENBERG LOOMS HIGH 21 
 
 have your own room. Come, dear; bring some lamps, 
 Minna." 
 
 "The lamps sit above already, gracious lady." 
 
 " Very well. We '11 be down in ten minutes, Minna." 
 
 Then they went up-stairs to where another small 
 lamp illuminated another long straight corridor, fur- 
 nished simply with a large sofa and two large trunks. 
 
 "Are there many others staying in the house?" 
 
 "My dear, there is no one; we have the whole 
 thing to ourselves. It 's out of the season." 
 
 " How nice ! What fun it will be when they all 
 come!" 
 
 "Yes, it will be delightful; if only Nellie and her 
 husband haven't had a quarrel. I must confess 
 Frank 's coming alone like this frightens me. But," 
 she added more cheerfully, "you'll be sure to like 
 Will Belden anybody can get on with him ; and 
 my husband 's a perfect love." 
 
 "Why did you ask the Ellerslies if you knew that 
 they quarreled so, Cousin Lizzie?" 
 
 Mrs. Dunn stopped at the extreme end of the hall 
 and stooped to take up a lighted lamp placed ready 
 there in the window-seat. 
 
 "Well, dear, to be frank with you, it wasn't easy 
 to get together a party of Americans in Germany for 
 just this time in the year, and Nellie does need some 
 simple living most terribly. I 'm really very, very 
 fond of them both. Frank Ellerslie is such a gentle-
 
 22 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 man, and his wife is bright, and they both can be 
 perfectly charming when they like. One must n't ex- 
 pect one's friends to be perfect, and I never do. If 
 they '11 just be happy and let me make them comfort- 
 able, it 's all I ask of my friends. There, this is your 
 room, dear. Goodness, but look at it! How he has 
 messed it up; any one could see that he was mad at 
 his wife only to look at the wash-stand. I don't see 
 how men ever manage to take so much temper out 
 in splashing!" 
 
 The gentleman in question had evidently only 
 waited to turn his Rucksack upside down on the bed, 
 seek out what he needed, shave, and then had forth- 
 with departed. Mrs. Dunn began to pick up the scat- 
 tered articles upon the bed, and Grace glanced around 
 her new quarters. The room was long and narrow, 
 with a big window at one end and a door at the other. 
 A toilet table had been constructed by combining an 
 ordinary table, a white cloth, a mirror, and two 
 candles. Several bright prints were pinned around 
 the walls, and a wicker armchair with chintz- 
 covered cushions stood by the window. 
 
 "You see, I 'd made it just as attractive as I pos- 
 sibly could," Mrs. Dunn mourned, "and now for you 
 to find it like this ! I declare, it 's too bad. But all 
 we can do is just to pick up his things and dump 
 them into Nellie's room. You gather up what 's on 
 the wash-stand, and I '11 carry the Rucksack"
 
 DICHTENBERG LOOMS HIGH 23 
 
 No sooner said than done. 
 
 "Where is his room?" Grace asked, as they went 
 down the dimly-lit hall, each with both hanols 
 full. 
 
 "The double doors to the left; mine are the double 
 doors to the right. You see, you all get the sun 
 and " 
 
 "I can't open the door," the girl said. 
 
 "Let me; you see, you press the handle so" the 
 door opened "there 's a table right Goodness! " 
 
 With a heavy clatter and bang Mrs. Dunn went 
 headforemost over something, and Grace came tum- 
 bling after. The knapsack, its contents, and the 
 toilet things flew far and wide. The darkness was 
 profound. 
 
 "Well, I'd like to know," began Mrs. Dunn's in- 
 dignant voice; then, recollecting herself, "Oh, my 
 dear, are you hurt?" 
 
 "No; but what happened?" 
 
 " I fell over something, I don't know what. There 
 was nothing but the table in the room this morning 
 in the center, I mean." 
 
 "It 's a valise," said the girl, "I 'm feeling it. It 's 
 a great big leather valise. Perhaps the the other 
 man has come, too." 
 
 "No, it 's Frank Ellerslie's," cried Mrs. Dunn, as 
 near to angry as she ever became; "it's his other 
 valise, and to think that here, in this place where
 
 24 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 there are no lights, he just deliberately set it inside of 
 one door and went somewhere else to dress. It 's a 
 mercy we were n't killed ! Wait until I get the lamp. 
 Don't stir until I come back." 
 
 She felt her way gingerly into the hall and came 
 back in a minute with a lamp. It was not very illu- 
 minating, but it did what it could. 
 
 "Nothing is broken," said Grace, looking about; 
 "but, oh dear, what a mess !" 
 
 "We '11 have to leave it until morning. He can't 
 come back to-night, so we can leave it all this way." 
 
 "But the maid said that he only went out to 
 walk?" 
 
 "He 'd be back by this time if he 'd gone to walk. 
 Maybe he 's gone somewhere to meet Nellie and make 
 up. They 're madly in love with each other, you 
 know." She turned to go. 
 
 Grace willingly followed, and together they re- 
 turned to the end room. "But I can't dress or wash 
 or brush without my things," said the girl; "when 
 will they come? When do trunks come here?" 
 
 Mrs. Dunn put down the lamp with a sigh. " Don't 
 ask me. That hill, and then that valise, have just 
 knocked all the ideas out of my head. The donkey 
 may not get up till late, and he always brings what 
 you don't want first. Come to my room and use my 
 soap, and then we '11 eat and I '11 lend you a night- 
 gown and we '11 go to bed."
 
 DICHTENBERG LOOMS HIGH 25 
 
 Grace took up the lamp. "Very well," she said, 
 more or less cheerfully. 
 
 They went to the room with double doors that lay 
 to the right, going down the hall. Mrs. Dunn opened 
 the door, the lamp's rays spread within, and Grace 
 gave a little cry of surprise and pleasure. 
 
 "You like it?" the older woman asked. 
 
 "Like it? Why, it looks startlingly civilized." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn smiled. "This is to be our sitting- 
 room," she said. "Bob and I will sleep in the next 
 room. But don't stop now, dear; I just gave you 
 this glimpse to brighten you up. We '11 go into my 
 bedroom for you to wash your hands, and then we '11 
 go down and get something to eat." 
 
 Five minutes later they were down-stairs in a little, 
 little private dining-room with a good supper of ome- 
 lette, potatoes, brown bread and butter spread before 
 them. 
 
 When their host came in to take orders for beer, 
 Mrs. Dunn learned that the gentleman who had 
 come had gone about six o'clock and that the post- 
 man was responsible for the valise. 
 
 "The postman?" Grace repeated. 
 
 "It must have come post-packet," Mrs. Dunn ex- 
 plained. 
 
 "And my luggage!" exclaimed Grace. 
 
 " Oh, that 's up here, but you can't have it until 
 morning."
 
 26 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "Not untO morning! Why not?" 
 
 "Oh, my dear, you just have to be patient here. 
 You see, there is no one to help with the trunks at 
 this hour. They 're perfectly safe. It 's not one bit 
 of use fussing or being in a hurry." 
 
 "You must lend me a gown, then." 
 
 "Oh, that's easily done." 
 
 "Where do you suppose Mr. Ellerslie can be now?" 
 
 "I don't know. How should I know? No one can 
 ever account for the Ellerslies " 
 
 "When did you say that your husband was com- 
 ing?" the girl asked. 
 
 " As soon as we are all settled. He hates confusion." 
 
 They finished supper and then went up-stairs. 
 
 "It will be jolly when they all get here," the girl 
 said again, as their shoes went echoing down the hall. 
 
 "Yes," said Mrs. Dunn, yawning slightly. "Oh, 
 dear, but I 'm tired." 
 
 She found the desired gown and went with Grace 
 to her room. 
 
 "Be sure you lock your door," she said, as she 
 kissed her goodnight. "The doors here have such a 
 funny way of springing open. You see, you think 
 that you 've locked them and they really were not 
 quite shut." 
 
 "I '11 be careful," promised the girl. 
 
 Mrs. Dunn then smothered a prodigious yawn and 
 departed.
 
 DICHTENBERG LOOMS HIGH 27 
 
 Grace, left alone by herself, immediately discovered 
 that she had never in all her life been so tired before. 
 She was actually so tired that she simply dropped her 
 clothes on the floor despite her excellent bringing up, 
 and, donning the borrowed gown, got into bed at 
 once and blew out her candle. 
 
 She forgot all about locking the door until she was 
 awakened later in the night by hearing some one in 
 the room.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 GRACE MEETS THE MEN 
 
 IT 's such a horribly uncanny sensation uhat of 
 waking in a strange, dark, new room, to the knowl- 
 edge that some one else has come. Grace's first 
 thought was that she did not know where the matches 
 were ; her second thought was that she had forgotten 
 to lock the door ; her third thought was that it was n't 
 a thief, because it wasn't trying to be quiet; her 
 fourth thought was that the door had been left open, 
 for a mighty draught began to draw through the long 
 narrow room. Then the open door somehow made 
 her suddenly know, with a smile at the situation, that 
 this must be Frank Ellerslie, and with the thought 
 she heard him hit the toilet table and send one of the 
 candlesticks shivering on the floor. The same in- 
 stant she slipped quickly out of bed, stepped softly 
 doorwards, escaped out of the room, stole quickly 
 down the hall until she felt the left-hand double 
 doors which were later to belong to the Ellerslies, 
 opened one, entered, and locked it after her. Her 
 subconscious reflection as she did all this was that,
 
 GRACE MEETS THE MEN 29 
 
 since he supposed her room to be his, she would 
 abandon it to him and go elsewhere. 
 
 She knew just where the beds stood and hastily 
 climbed into the nearest one. As she did so, she sud- 
 denly remembered her clothes in the other room ! 
 Then she recalled that she and Mrs. Dunn had de- 
 posited all of Mr. Ellerslie's belongings in the room 
 which she had just entered. Then her arrant folly 
 swept frildly up about her. "Why did n't I speak?" 
 she cried wrathfully to herself ; " how silly of me ! If 
 I had just said 'Who is it?' he would have retired at 
 once. Now what are we to do? And my things!" 
 Then she remembered the rat that she wore hi her 
 hair and the false coronet braid that she wore on top 
 of the rat. She writhed. Even if Mr. Ellerslie was 
 married, that would n't help things much, for he would 
 be sure to tell his wife. Mrs. Ellerslie had a wealth of 
 brown wavy hair, and was as merciless on fine thin 
 golden locks as any woman under such circumstances 
 would naturally be. Grace had heard about Nellie 
 Ellerslie's hair. She writhed some more. Then the 
 cold bed made her sneeze, and a heavy voice said in 
 somewhat startled accents: 
 
 "What the devil's that?" 
 
 Her mental shock may better be imagined than de- 
 scribed ! She went straight out of her senses and into 
 hysterics. She began to shriek at the top of her voice, 
 and in a minute a great hubbub arose in the hall, and
 
 30 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 Frank Ellerslie, for this man was Ellerslie, having 
 somehow gotten out of bed and into a heavy 
 dressing-gown of brown velvet a good deal too short 
 for him, got the door open and allowed his unin- 
 vited visitor to escape. He had an electric light in 
 his hand, and he faced Mrs. Dunn with a candle. Be- 
 side Mrs. Dunn stood a small but very interested- 
 looking boy and a large disgusted-looking man. At 
 the other end of the hall stood another man, all 
 dressed except for his coat. 
 
 This little gathering was the immediate result 
 of Grace's shrieks. Everybody looked completely 
 nonplussed and more or less sleepy. Grace ran to 
 Mrs. Dunn and clung about her neck. "Oh, Cousin 
 Lizzie, Cousin Lizzie, I 'm so s-so frightened. 
 Mr Ellerslie came back to his room and did n't 
 know I was there, and I managed to slip out and 
 get into their room, and he was there, too." 
 
 "But but " stammered Ellerslie, folding the 
 velvet gown about him in a way that showed how 
 painfully conscious of its shortcomings he was, "I 
 don't quite see what disturbed you?" 
 
 "Who's that?" demanded Mrs. Dunn, suddenly 
 perceiving the man at the other end of the hall. 
 "Why, Will Belden, is that you?" 
 
 The man without a coat came down the hall. 
 
 Mrs. Dunn opened the door behind her and pushed 
 Grace in. "Get into my bed, you poor child," she
 
 GRACE MEETS THE MEN 31 
 
 said, hurriedly; "you see, Bob came on the late train 
 from Hanover really I 'm so mixed up and 
 Frank Ellerslie was left here by a motor I don't 
 know whose motor. Just get into my bed, and, 
 Bobby, you run back to bed, too, dear." 
 
 " Where did you come from?" Ellerslie asked Bel- 
 den, in a tart tone. "I thought you were staying in 
 Harzburg." 
 
 "I walked over yesterday," said Belden, with the 
 irritating good-humor of the one fully or nearly 
 fully clothed person. " When I arrived there was 
 no one here, so I went for a stroll in the woods 
 and got lost. I 've been all of five hours getting 
 back." 
 
 " He 's one of our party, you know," Mrs. Dunn 
 said, hastily, looking back and forth between them. 
 "I thought he was you, you know, Frank. That was 
 so natural, because I did n't see him we were in 
 Brunswick, you know. And he 's one of the party," 
 she added, hopelessly, noting Nellie Ellerslie's hus- 
 band's glare. 
 
 "Is he?" said Ellerslie, with the heaviest possible 
 emphasis, and then he went into his own room and 
 slammed the door in a way that shook the whole 
 Gasthof with meaning. 
 
 "Oh dear!" said the poor little woman, looking 
 from Belden to her husband now, "just think I 
 thought that you were such friends."
 
 32 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "You ought not to have asked them," said Dunn. 
 "I told you so in the beginning." 
 
 "Never mind Ellerslie," said Belden, pleasantly. 
 " I 'm the one to blame. What shall I do with that 
 poor girl's things? That 's the first question. They're 
 all in my room, you know." 
 
 " It is n't your room, Will, it 's hers," said Mrs. 
 Dunn. "Bobby, you must run back to bed. I'll 
 tell you, Will, you 'd better just give up the room. 
 It 's her room, anyway ; yours is here, next to 
 Bobby's." 
 
 "What about my things that I left there, though?" 
 
 "They they," Mrs. Dunn rubbed her head a bit; 
 "why, to be sure," she cried then, "I'd forgotten 
 completely ; those were n't Frank's things, they were 
 yours!" 
 
 "Of course they were mine." 
 
 "They 've all been put in his room." 
 
 "In his room? Oh, no!" 
 
 "Yes, they have. You see we thought that they 
 were his." 
 
 Belden drew in his breath. "Then they Ve got 
 to come right out of his room," he said. Then he 
 lowered his voice. " I Ve got letters and things in 
 with my things," he said, and he wasn't smiling 
 now; he looked frightened. "I must have them; 
 they can't stay in there for him to find in the 
 morning."
 
 GRACE MEETS THE MEN 33 
 
 "Oh, must we disturb him again?" Mrs. Dunn 
 whispered anxiously, looking towards the Ellerslie 
 door. "Can't you possibly wait?" 
 
 Dunn looked more disgusted than ever. "Why 
 could n't that girl lock her door, anyhow? " he said; 
 "girls are always such fools." 
 
 "I 've got to get my things," said Belden. "You 
 see, I came over to explain everything and tell you 
 why I could n't join the party." 
 
 "Could n't join the party! " cried Mrs. Dunn. 
 "But you 're joined you're here." 
 
 " Wherever he is, don't let 's discuss it to-night," 
 said Dunn. "I want to get back to bed. You've 
 put the girl in my bed; where am I to go?" 
 
 "Oh dear!" cried his poor wife. "Oh dear! 
 Wait till I think ! Mr. Belden was to have had Eleven ; 
 if he '11 just go into Eleven, I '11 take Grace back to 
 her own room and then you can have your own bed, 
 dear." 
 
 "But I must have my things," said Belden. He 
 came close to Mrs. Dunn now and whispered: "Just 
 as I left, Nellie gave me a note, and it 's in there now 
 in that knapsack." 
 
 " Oh, my goodness ! " cried Mrs. Dunn, despairingly. 
 "Bob, dear," she whispered, "Nellie gave him a note 
 and it 's in there with his things." 
 
 "What a fool she was ! " said Dunn; but he looked 
 sober. "If it comes to that, we '11 just have to bat 
 
 3
 
 34 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 him up again," he said. "What a fool you were, 
 Belden ! You know Frank Ellerslie." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn folded her wrapper about her and drew 
 Belden towards Number Eleven. "Bob will get your 
 things," she said, "but, please tell me was there 
 serious trouble? How dreadful !" 
 
 "Not exactly serious," said Belden, unwillingly, 
 " but you know how jealous he 's always willing to be." 
 
 "But is he jealous of you?" 
 
 "Well, you know, he's always been jealous of 
 me." 
 
 (They could hear Dunn hammering on the Ellers- 
 lie door.) 
 
 "No, I didn't know it. Why, just between our- 
 selves, it was Nellie who suggested you for this party ; 
 she said you were the one man that Frank never 
 was jealous about." 
 
 Belden opened his eyes widely. "Poor little Nellie, 
 she 's always trying to smooth it up ; she 's the dear- 
 est woman in the world but " He stopped. 
 
 "What are we to do? " Mrs. Dunn asked, anxiously. 
 "Goon, tell me." 
 
 "Is she here now?" 
 
 "No, she 's still at Harzburg. They seem to have 
 had a quarrel. Oh, it 's too terrible to think that it 
 was over you!" 
 
 (Dunn was still battering at Ellerslie's door.) 
 
 "I don't know what to do. He 's such an unrea-
 
 GRACE MEETS THE MEN 35 
 
 sonable brute. I just walked off and came to tell you 
 that I could n't come to stay." 
 
 "Oh dear, but you must stay; you're the only 
 single man I 've got. Nellie ought not to flirt so." 
 Mrs. Dunn was thinking that through this little idio- 
 syncrasy of her dear and pretty friend she would 
 have her whole party thrown out of gear. "I wish 
 she would n't," she added, with really deep feeling. 
 
 " She does n't flirt. She 'a just naturally irre- 
 sistible." 
 
 " Oh, she 's charming, but you know that she 's a 
 terrible flirt. Every one knows that." 
 
 "Not at all," said Belden, almost warmly. 
 
 "Well, we '11 see," said Mrs. Dunn, soothingly, not 
 just meaning what she said. 
 
 (The Ellerslie door was now open, and Mr. Belden's 
 belongings were being ejected in quite the happy, 
 placid mood which usually accompanies ejectments.) 
 
 As soon as Ellerslie had closed his door again with 
 a slam and locked it with a wrench, Will Belden and 
 his belongings were thrust together into Number 
 Eleven and that door also closed. 
 
 "Lock it," cried Dunn from the outside, and the 
 young man locked it. 
 
 "You 've got a pretty kettle of fish on your hands, 
 Lizzie," Dunn said to his wife, as they went to their 
 own room. 
 
 " Oh dear ! Oh dear ! " said Mrs. Dunn.
 
 36 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 Then she had to rout Grace out of her temporary 
 bed. 
 
 " What a night I have had ! " the woman said to the 
 girl. " You 've had some sleep, but, you see, right 
 after I went to bed Bob arrived ; and he thought the 
 country air would do Bobby good, so, if he has n't 
 taken him out of school and brought him here ! 
 They came on the late train, and just as they 
 were eating their supper Frank Ellerslie arrived." 
 
 "Where 's Mrs. Ellerslie?" 
 
 "She's still at Harzburg. Isn't it awful about 
 them? You know, they must have quarreled fright- 
 fully. And over Will, too." 
 
 "Why did you ask Mr. Belden if he if they 
 Why did you ask him, Cousin Lizzie?" Grace's tone 
 lacked its earlier pitch of interest as to the " single 
 man." 
 
 " I did n't, my dear ; that 's the worst of it. She 
 asked him and I must n't say so." 
 
 "How awful !" The tone was severely condemna- 
 tory now. 
 
 "Isn't it awful?" Mrs. Dunn was nothing if not 
 acquiescent. "But he's a dear; he'll go on in a 
 day or two, I think. He won't make any trouble. 
 Only, of course, when he goes on the party will be 
 uneven; you'll have no single man." 
 
 " Oh, that does n't matter. I don't mind ; I '11 
 walk with Bobby." Grace seemed to feel intuitively
 
 GRACE MEETS THE MEN 37 
 
 that she would not have had the single man much, 
 anyway. " Only I am glad he is n't going to wake 
 up in this room. He 'd have seen all my hair." 
 
 "Yes, but everybody wears such lots of hair these 
 days." Mrs. Dunn yawned just slightly and turned 
 away. " I 'm so sleepy," she said, apologetically. 
 
 " Do go to bed right off," Grace urged. " I 'm 
 sleepy, too." 
 
 "Yes, I will. And you be sure you lock the door 
 this time, won't you?" 
 
 " Yes, I will. I '11 get out of bed and do it at once." 
 
 Then Mrs. Dunn departed, Grace locked her door, 
 and the night moved on on its way towards 
 Australia via America.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 BRIGHT MORNING DREAMS 
 
 THE next morning Dunn woke first, and woke Mrs. 
 Dunn at once by leaning out of his little half-bed 
 over her half-bed and giving her a gentle marital 
 shake. 
 
 "Wh-what is it, dear?" the wife asked, writhing 
 a little and singularly loath to open her eyes; then, 
 "Oh, I'm so tired!" 
 
 "What have you been doing to make yourself 
 tired? I should think if there was one thing that did 
 flourish here it would be rest." 
 
 "Yes, I know, dear; it is quiet. But there was 
 so much to see to before they all came, you know." 
 
 "Do wake up, Lizzie. I want to know how that 
 girl got so mixed up last night ; I could n't make head 
 or tail of what it all meant." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn sighed. " Oh, it 's such a long story. 
 You see, we thought " 
 
 A brisk tap on the door. 
 
 " What 's that ? " said Mr. Dunn. " Hot water ? " 
 
 His wife sprang out of bed. "No, Bob, it 's the 
 postman. Good gracious, can it be possible that
 
 BRIGHT MORNING DREAMS 39 
 
 we have slept until nine o'clock ? He comes at 
 nine." 
 
 She went to the door and unbolted it. 
 
 "Margen" said the smiling postman. 
 
 "Morgen" said Mrs. Dunn. 
 
 "Twenty-five Pfennigs to pay," said the postman, 
 and gave her five letters forthwith. 
 
 She brought the mail back to the bed and sorted it. 
 
 " One from Nellie. Oh, she must be coming at once, 
 then." 
 
 "There'll be a pretty row when she gets here," 
 said Dunn. "What did you ask Belden for?" 
 
 "I didn't ask him! She asked him! But she 
 does n't want her husband to know it." 
 
 "He wanted to marry her once, didn't he?" 
 
 "No, he never tried to marry her. It was me that 
 he wanted to marry, years ago, when we were all 
 young. He never wanted to marry Nellie till long 
 after she was married." 
 
 "I never knew that Belden ever wanted to many 
 you. Not that it matters. How do we get hot water 
 here, anyhow?" 
 
 " You ring, dear, just one ring and then they 
 bring it. If they don't, I light the alcohol lamp. 
 There, I forgot to tell the others how to get then" 
 hot water; I bought them all lamps and alcohol. I 
 wonder if Bobby is up; oh, why did you bring 
 him?"
 
 40 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "Are n't you glad to see your own child, 
 Elizabeth?" 
 
 "Yes, of course; but I don't know what I can do 
 with him here. There are no children, and he was so 
 nicely settled in Hanover." 
 
 "No, he wasn't nicely settled at all. He didn't 
 want to stay there. I asked him." 
 
 "But children never want to stay where they are. 
 The Ellerslies have no children, and I 'm afraid they 
 won't like our bringing ours." 
 
 "I don't think much of your party, Lizzie, to tell 
 you the plain truth. Grace Waters is a nice girl, but, 
 like all young girls, she 's a stick as far as brains go, 
 and as for Belden why didn't you ever tell me 
 about his proposing to you before?" 
 
 "It's so long ago. Did you ring for the hot 
 water, dear?" 
 
 "I did ring for the hot water. How did you come 
 to refuse him, anyhow?" 
 
 " He never really proposed. But I did n't want to 
 marry him, anyway." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 "I was in love with Clifford Benson then." 
 
 "Oh! How long does it take to get hot water 
 here?" 
 
 "Well, it takes a good while, dear; don't you want 
 to go and see the view out of the window?" 
 
 " I have n't the faintest desire to see the view out
 
 BRIGHT MORNING DREAMS 41 
 
 of the window. I want to get up and get dressed. 
 Nine o'clock, indeed!" 
 
 Mrs. Dunn got out of bed. "I 'd better start some 
 water on the spirit lamp," she said. 
 
 "What do you want to do that for? The hot 
 water must be coming. Everybody is ringing 
 now." 
 
 This was quite true. The whole house was jingling 
 jangling. 
 
 "Where do we get breakfast?" 
 
 "I 've been having mine in my room." 
 
 "Well, I 'm not going to have mine in my room, I 
 know that." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn had been glancing through her letters. 
 She cried out now: "Why, Nellie is coming to-day! 
 She 's written." 
 
 "What train?" 
 
 "She says 'by the first tram.' Let me see, that 
 will be the one from Derneburg that gets here at 
 seven minutes after eleven." 
 
 "Her husband ought to go and meet her." 
 
 "I shall go and meet her myself; that will be the 
 best. If they are mad, walking up that hill together 
 will never make things smoother, you know." 
 
 " I should say not. I don't see why you ever came 
 here. I never climbed such a hill before." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn was brushing her hair ; she had started 
 a kettle of water on the spirit lamp, arranged the
 
 42 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 window shades, picked up the room, and gotten on her 
 stockings and slippers during the above dialogue. 
 
 "The view this morning is beautiful," she said now. 
 " I adore the plain. That 's the plain of North Ger- 
 many, you know; you can see fifteen villages from 
 here; the Berlin express runs over there by Broid- 
 stedt, on its way from Hildesheim to Brunswick." 
 
 "I wish it ran by here," said Dunn. 
 
 "Yes, the train here is pretty slow." 
 
 " Slow ! " said Dunn. " Slower than slow." 
 
 There was a little pause during which a jug of hot 
 water put hi an appearance. Mrs. Dunn was now 
 all dressed. 
 
 "I'll go to Bobby," she said, "and I '11 order you 
 your breakfast down-stairs in the dining-room." She 
 smiled as she spoke, and then she went out. 
 
 In the hall she met Will Belden in a shooting- 
 jacket and knickerbockers. 
 
 "Have you been out already?" she asked in sur- 
 prise, as they exchanged a morning hand-shake. 
 
 "Of course. I always get up at six o'clock in the 
 country. I 've had a glorious tramp. But how can 
 I apologize sufficiently for last night? I was so 
 sorry." 
 
 " You see, we thought that you were Mr. Ellerslie, 
 or rather that your things were his." 
 
 "Most natural mistake in the world j but that poor 
 girl, what a fright I must have given her ! Terrible ! "
 
 BRIGHT MORNING DREAMS 43 
 
 "You 've never met Grace Waters, have you?" 
 
 "No, that is, never until last night." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn lowered her voice. "Will," she said, 
 "I want to speak to you very seriously, but there 
 is n't time to do it properly just now, because I must 
 see after Bobby; just as soon as possible please give 
 me a chance." 
 
 "Don't you want to go to walk after breakfast?" 
 
 "No, I must go down and meet Nellie." 
 
 Belden's face clouded. "Is she coming to-day?" 
 
 "Yes, at eleven this morning." 
 
 " Oh ! " Belden looked vaguely about him not just 
 seeing what to do next. 
 
 "I must go to Bobby," said the mother, hurriedly; 
 "just remember and give me the chance when you 
 can, and Will," she looked earnestly into his face, 
 " help me ; I 'm afraid that this is n't going to be an 
 easy party to put through successfully." 
 
 "Nonsense!" Belden's tone was hearty. "It's 
 always tough work getting the tents up and the fire 
 to burning, but after that all is sheer fun; don't 
 you worry." He nodded at her, smiling, and she was 
 forced to smile back. Then he turned into his room 
 and she turned into Bobby's. Bobby was stretched 
 out placidly in bed, sound asleep. The hill had af- 
 fected him in the best way that the hard spots in 
 Me can affect any one. 
 
 His mother woke him with a kiss.
 
 44 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "Oh, Mamma, I 'm so glad I 'm here." 
 
 "Bless your heart, dear." 
 
 "You won't send me to school again ever, will 
 you?" 
 
 "Why, Bobby, you '11 have to go to school again." 
 
 " But not while you 're here? It 's so jolly here. 
 The rooster woke me up ever so early, and I wrapped 
 myself up in my bedquilt and stayed in the window 
 ever so long. It was blue, and yellow, and red, and 
 so pretty. All the air was blue and the sun was mak- 
 ing the other colors. Have you seen it look so, 
 Mamma?" 
 
 "Yes, dear," suddenly she was keenly joyful 
 over the child's coming, "and, oh, Bobby, you '11 
 be crazy over the woods here. And there are rab- 
 bits, and pheasants, and deer " 
 
 "Not real deer!" 
 
 "Yes, darling, real deer the prettiest little 
 things that you ever saw in all your life." 
 
 And now Bobby was out of bed and dressing him- 
 self in hot haste. "I 'm so glad Papa brought me," 
 he said ; "oh, my, but I 'm glad "Papa brought 
 me!" 
 
 His mother brushed his yellow curls and kissed 
 him. 
 
 " I 'm going to the station to meet Auntie Nell 
 presently," she said; "perhaps Papa will take you 
 out to walk while I 'm gone. You can ask him."
 
 BRIGHT MORNING DREAMS 45 
 
 Then she left him and went to Grace. Grace was 
 in bed with her face buried in the pillow. "Oh, 
 Cousin Lizzie, I 'm so glad you 've come ; I began to 
 think that you never would come. I Ve got neural- 
 gia ; my feet are like ice. They '11 have to put a 
 stove right up in my room. I never ought to come 
 to the country!" 
 
 Mrs. Dunn quite jumped. " You poor child ! I '11 
 run and get my hot-water bag. What can we do? 
 There 's no way to put a stove up in this room. I 
 never thought of any one's wanting a stove." 
 
 " I '11 have to have a stove, Cousin Lizzie ; I have 
 to be warm. You see I got so cold last night and 
 such a fright two frights, you know?" 
 
 "Yes, dear. I suppose I ought to have come and 
 told you when Frank Ellerslie came, but he came so 
 late and I had my hands so full with Bob and Bobby, 
 and of course I never thought of your trying to sleep 
 in that room." 
 
 "I know, Cousin Lizzie, but, oh, do hurry now and 
 get me a hot-water bag." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn hurried back to her own room. 
 
 "Have you ordered breakfast?" asked Dunn, who 
 was shaving. 
 
 "No, dear, I 've not had a second. First I woke 
 Bobby, and poor Grace has got neuralgia. I want 
 the hot-water bottle for her." 
 
 Dunn stopped shaving and glared at his razor. " I
 
 46 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 should think that she would have neuralgia," he said. 
 "I never saw such a place. Are n't there any of the 
 ordinary necessities of life here? Heat or food or 
 an omnibus or anything?" 
 
 Mrs. Dunn was diving into her trunk in a wildly 
 searching attitude. " You see, you were n't expected 
 quite so soon, dear; I hurried all I could." 
 
 Ellerslie pounded on the door. "I 'm going out," 
 he cried. "Where 's the telegraph office here?" 
 
 "Oh, dear," said Mrs. Dunn, very low, "he 's had 
 his mail, too; what do you suppose she can have 
 written him?" She hastened to open the door. 
 "Nellie 's coming at eleven," she said, with honeyed 
 sweetness ; "can't you telegraph on your way to 
 the station? I 'm going with you to meet her, 
 and we can walk past the telegraph office on our 
 way." 
 
 Ellerslie, who was tall and military-looking by 
 daylight, withered the lady in the crack with one 
 downward scorching glance. " I 'm not going to 
 meet Helen," he said, with undiluted sarcasm. "I 
 dare say Belden will be only too happy to accom- 
 pany you. I asked where the telegraph office was." 
 
 "Oh!" said the lady in the crack, with a gasp of 
 recognition as she sensed the coldness of her douche, 
 "the telegraph office is in the post-office down in the 
 village." 
 
 "Where's the village?" asked Ellerslie.
 
 BRIGHT MORNING DREAMS 47 
 
 "Right down the road. Any one will tell you. 
 Have you breakfasted?" 
 
 " I 've had something. I would n't call it break- 
 fast, but it was breakfast, I suppose." 
 
 " You 're better off than I am," cried Dunn from 
 his shaving. "I 've had nothing yet." 
 
 " Mamma," cried Bobby, squeezing himself under 
 Ellerslie's arm, " I 've broken my shoe-lace." 
 
 "Oh dear!" said Mrs. Dunn, expressively. Then, 
 "Come in here, dear, while I get another for you." 
 
 "I'll go and look for the telegraph office," said 
 Ellerslie; "if I 'm not back for whatever they have 
 at noon, you need n't wait. I like to feel free in the 
 country." 
 
 He turned to go and ran block into Will Belden 
 coming up the hall. 
 
 "Hello," said Belden, cordially. 
 
 "Hello," growled Ellerslie. 
 
 Then the latter went on down-stairs, and the former 
 tapped on the Dunns' door. 
 
 "That '11 be to say your coffee is ready, dear," said 
 Mrs. Dunn, who had just perceived that the spirit 
 lamp had gone out and was refilling it, while Bobby 
 spun his shoe by what string there was left; "do 
 open the door." 
 
 Dunn opened the door; of course he was disap- 
 pointed when he saw that it was n't to say that his 
 coffee was ready.
 
 48 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "Good morning," said Belden, smiling. "The post- 
 man seems a little confused as to his new patrons; 
 he left this letter with mine." He held it out. 
 
 "Oh, much obliged," said Dunn. 
 
 "Have you got any black shoe-strings?" Mrs. Dunn 
 cried desperately. The clock was marching straight 
 on towards train time, and of course poor Grace 
 was lying writhing where she left her. "Bobby has 
 broken his, and I 'm about crazy with so much on my 
 hands." 
 
 Just as she spoke there came a bang. The half 
 shoe-string had also given way, and the spinning 
 shoe had hit the jug of hot water and upset it. 
 
 "Bobby!" cried his mother. 
 
 Belden felt terribly sorry for her. "Oh, I say," 
 he said, picking up the shoe with one hand and Bobby 
 with the other, " I guess I 've got some shoe-strings in 
 my room. Come with me, Bobby, and I '11 fix you 
 out." 
 
 They departed, and the door shut, leaving Mrs. 
 Dunn equally divided between gratitude and mop- 
 ping the floor. 
 
 "Whatever can I do? It 's almost ten o'clock, and 
 it takes a half hour to walk to the station. Grace is 
 ill and I must meet Nellie." 
 
 "Why?" asked her husband, shortly. "Why must 
 you meet her?" 
 
 "Somebody had got to meet her to show her the
 
 BRIGHT MORNING DREAMS 49 
 
 way up here. Her husband won't, and Will Belden 
 can't so much as offer." 
 
 Dunn carefully wiped his razor. " If I can get some 
 coffee, I don't mind going," he said, kindly. 
 
 His wife cried out with joy. "Bob! you old 
 dear ! Will you really? That will be perfectly heav- 
 enly hi you." 
 
 "But I want my coffee first." 
 
 " Of course ; I '11 run with this hot-water bag, and 
 then I '11 go straight down-stairs and get your coffee 
 myself. Oh, Bob, you are an angel ! I forgive you 
 all your sins now." 
 
 Dunn laughed. 
 
 Mrs. Dunn took the rubber bag and hastened to 
 Grace Waters' room. The poor girl was writhing 
 with pain. 
 
 "I thought that you were never coming back," she 
 wailed. "Oh, Cousin Lizzie, my head, my head! 
 I must have a stove put up ! I '11 get chills and 
 fever!" 
 
 The hot-water bag proved very soothing, and that 
 almost instantly. 
 
 " If I just had a cup of tea ! " murmured the invalid. 
 
 "I '11 go right and make it for you, dear; I have 
 all my tea-things, you know. Do you want more 
 covering?" 
 
 "No, only the stove." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn tried to smile, knowing as she did that 
 
 4
 
 50 
 
 there was no stove-hole in the room. " I '11 ask about 
 a stove, dear," she said ; " I '11 go now and make your 
 tea." 
 
 Then she hurried down-stairs to see about her hus- 
 band's coffee.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 DUNN MEETS MRS. ELLERSLIB 
 
 DUNN set off down the hill in a right good spirit. His 
 wife had finally succeeded in getting him his coffee, 
 rolls, and eggs, and the change in his disposition had 
 been marked. Like many other men, he never 
 bothered much what he said or did when hungry, on 
 account of the dear old proverb which some cross, 
 hungry man once promulgated to help his sex out 
 forever after. 
 
 But now he was fed and smiling, and hi the agree- 
 able mood resultant. He had on comfortable shoes 
 and the morning was good ; Mrs. Ellerslie was pretty 
 and his wife would n't care ; the sun shone and the 
 road was all down-hill, no wonder he smiled. He 
 was very human. 
 
 He tripped on a stone in trying to look at the view, 
 so he did n't try again which was a pity, for the view 
 was very beautiful. The road was fairly steep at 
 first, then less steep, and then stretched on an even 
 incline all the way down the side of the long, strag- 
 gling village. The whilom village wall with its little
 
 52 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 fortress-like openings, blocked now, formed the street 
 side of the biggest stone stable belonging to the 
 Dichtenberger Domane. Dunn did not notice either, 
 neither did he observe the duck-pond nor the dahlias 
 nor the curtseying children. The only facts that 
 forced themselves upon him on his way to the 
 station were the windmill and the odor from the 
 Molkerei. 
 
 But he thought a lot about Mrs. Ellerslie. 
 
 It was quite plain that, Ellerslie being Ellerslie 
 and Belden being Belden, it would be Dunn himself 
 who would be Mrs. Ellerslie's chief mainstay in Dich- 
 tenberg. Any blind man could see that in the dark. 
 He pulled down his vest a bit, whistled -cheerfully, 
 and stepped with a more springy step. After all, it 
 was a beautiful country, and would do them all a 
 world of good. Getting off in this way from the 
 trials and temptations of the world was always a 
 nice thing to do. Dunn piped up loudly, feeling more 
 and more cheerful every minute. He remembered 
 that Mrs. Ellerslie was so pretty, and that she was 
 one of those women who, even hi the country, 
 always wore high heels and all her rings. 
 
 The modest little station rose up just ahead, gaz- 
 ing mildly over its own accompanying bushes. It 
 was built of gray-yellow brick, like most of the smaller 
 German stations, and the clock in front was generous 
 and gave Dunn ten minutes to wait. He walked up
 
 DUNN MEETS MRS. ELLERSLIE 53 
 
 and down and was really surprised to note how 
 pleasurable his emotions were. 
 
 After the most liberal ten minutes that Time had 
 ever yet allowed this world, the exceedingly unob- 
 trusive and deliberate little train came daintily pick- 
 ing its way through the fields. It stopped at Oster- 
 linde and almost decided to spend the morning 
 there, but finally got under way again, ran around 
 two cabbage-patches on account of disliking to cut 
 across, and came gently down towards Dichtenberg, 
 where the station-master, every whit as imposing 
 as the one at Brunswick, held up his hand and 
 stopped it short. 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie appeared on the platform almost at 
 once. When she saw Dunn she was horribly disap- 
 pointed, for she had forty million feminine things to 
 tell his wife, but she smothered that fact in a radiant 
 smile and all but threw herself into his arms. 
 
 "I'm so glad to see you! It's so curious, I just 
 knew that you would be the one to meet me; you 
 always were a dear ! " 
 
 Dunn believed it all. " Ellerslie went out to walk," 
 he said, "and so I was only too pleased." 
 
 "Isn't Mr. Belden here?" she asked, partly be- 
 cause she wanted to know that more than she wanted 
 to know anything and partly because, clever as she 
 was, she was very far from being altogether clever. 
 
 Dunn felt jarred, "Oh, yes, he's here," he said,
 
 54 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 with a sudden let-down in enthusiasm. "My wife 
 wanted a single man hi the party on account of that 
 girl, you know, so he's here." 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie was plenty clever enough to perceive 
 that the man who had met her was very stupid in- 
 deed, so now had time to remember her luggage. 
 
 They were getting it off, three, large trunks and 
 a hat-box. 
 
 "It looks like a good deal," she said, glancing that 
 way, "but I'm not like dear Lizzie. I never can 
 quite bring myself down to the real country level. I 
 must have my bit of lace around my throat and my 
 blue velvet bed slippers wherever I go." 
 
 Dunn did n't speak German, so the luggage had no 
 meaning for him. " Let 's walk on up," he suggested ; 
 "they can get that stuff up the hill alone." 
 
 "Walk up ! Is n't there an omnibus? " 
 
 "There isn't anything, as far as I can find out, 
 except the view. Lizzie is crazy over views, you 
 know. I'm partial to hot water, myself." 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie stopped short; she was thinking of 
 the personal necessities of her case. " Is n't there 
 any hot water?" she cried, in attractive fright. 
 
 Dunn laughed, took hold of her arm (she had round 
 arms and tan elbow-gloves), propelled her a bit on- 
 ward, and said: "Oh, I drew it a bit strong; there's 
 plenty of hot water." 
 
 "I'm so glad. I use such a lot. But do tell me
 
 DUNN MEETS MRS. ELLERSLIE 55 
 
 now, how is Lizzie ; and I suppose in common decency 
 I ought to ask after that husband of mine. You 
 know the trick he played me, don't you?" 
 
 "No I hope there 's no " 
 
 " He 's a beast ; that 's what he is," said Mrs. Eller- 
 slie, with great decision. "No man with Frank's 
 temperament ever ought to marry. Oh, the life he's 
 led me there in Harzburg! I've been so unhappy 
 that I'm sure I never want to see another German 
 officer." 
 
 "Were there German officers there?" said Dunn. 
 
 She saw that he was even more stupid than she had 
 supposed. "Oh, loads," she said; "but tell me, is 
 that our place by the windmill there? They'll have 
 a good bit of work getting my trunks up, won't 
 they?" 
 
 "That!" said Dunn. "That isn't a hotel at all; 
 the hotel's up at the top, by that tower." 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie's eyes flew to the tower, and then she 
 screamed: "'Way up there? Oh, I never can walk 
 that ! Will Belden ought to have sent a carriage." 
 
 Dunn felt utterly disgusted. "Oh, it's a horrible 
 place," he said, harshly. "I don't see how Lizzie 
 ever came to think that we could stand it. But 
 that's Lizzie all over she's specially gifted in get- 
 ting others into a hole. I never was in favor of this 
 plan. Grace Waters is sick in bed with a cold. It's 
 all a mess."
 
 56 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "I never wanted to come," said Mrs. Ellerslie, 
 moving on slowly. " I hate the country." 
 
 "So do I," said Dunn, heartily. 
 
 The warmly expressed mutual hate seemed to 
 bring them together again. 
 
 "And I had the prettiest rooms in Harzburg, I do 
 believe," said Mrs. Ellerslie; "all my things were 
 unpacked, too, and plenty of bureau drawers. If 
 only Frank had been decent!" she sighed, and 
 walked a little faster. 
 
 "Is he as bad as that?" 
 
 "He gets worse and worse. Oh, Mr. Dunn," she 
 overflowed suddenly, "I'm so glad that you came 
 down to meet me, because you are the only one here 
 to whom I can speak freely. You see, just between 
 ourselves, Frank is horribly jealous of Lizzie, because 
 he thinks I tell her things a man always hates to 
 have his wife tell any one things, you know." 
 
 Dunn looked sympathetic and pleased. 
 
 "And Grace Waters well, she's only a girl, you 
 know. I always think a married woman has no right 
 to be confidential with a girl. They deserve their 
 little dreams, don't they? And, of course, I can't 
 be confidential with Will here, because Frank 's wild 
 over Will Belden. Poor Will ! And so there 's only 
 you, and I thank my lucky stars that you happen to 
 be the kind of man that he just can't be jealous 
 of."
 
 DUNN MEETS MRS. ELLERSLIE 57 
 
 Dunn ceased to look pleased all of a sudden. 
 
 "Am I?" he asked, registering a vow fiercely as 
 he spoke, a vow that he 'd show her ! 
 
 "Yes, of course you are. There's nothing of the 
 fire-eater about you. Not but what Frank 's very 
 silly to mind Will, either. Will 's a dear, of course, 
 but he's such a Chessy-cat with his good nature, and 
 he never would get any one into trouble if he could 
 help it. You know how tame that kind of man 
 always is?" 
 
 "But you class me as the same sort," Dunn said, 
 attempting to speak jokingly, but plainly showing 
 his utter dislike of such classing. 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie looked quickly up, and saw her own 
 blunder. She smiled at once, and what a smile she 
 smiled ! And then she brushed her hand across her 
 eyes with a pretty childish gesture, and then she 
 sighed a dear, little, weary, panting sigh. 
 
 And then she said : " Oh, Mr. Dunn, the very idea, 
 the very idea ! You like Will Belden ! How can you 
 suppose that any woman with eyes and brains could 
 ever even dream such a thing? " 
 
 "But you said that no one would be jealous of 
 me," said Dunn, exposing his sore spot at once. 
 
 " Oh, but I did n't mean it that way," cried Mrs. 
 Ellerslie. "How could you suppose that I ever 
 meant it that way? Why, Mr. Dunn, you know 
 what you are and you know what you look like, so
 
 58 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 do please explain to me how under the sun I could 
 have meant it that way?" 
 
 She stopped and looked up at him archly. Of 
 course he couldn't answer her, partly because no 
 sensible answer could be devised to such a statement, 
 and partly because very few men ever stay sensible 
 when a pretty woman begs them to do so, and looks 
 up at them at the same time. 
 
 "Oh, well, of course, if you put it in that way," 
 said Dunn, and was suddenly conscious of how pic- 
 turesque the windmill was, after all. "I do hope 
 that we shall see a lot of one another. As you say/' 
 he continued, warmly, "we seem sort of thrown on 
 one another's company." 
 
 "Yes, but that's very nice," said Mrs. Ellerslie, 
 gayly. "Coming along on the train, I had a distinct 
 sensation that something delightful was about to 
 occur, and now I know what it is." 
 
 "What," said Dunn, beginning to feel very young 
 indeed, "what is it?" 
 
 "Oh, I won't tell if you don't know." 
 
 "Yes, tell me." 
 
 "'Deed I won't." 
 
 "You must you shall " 
 
 It was a cruel fate that brought them abreast of 
 the Molkerei breeze just here. The Mblkerei would 
 have changed the trend of the Council of Constance. 
 
 "Gracious heavens, what is it!" cried Mrs. Eller-
 
 DUNN MEETS MRS. ELLERSLIE 59 
 
 slie, fumbling in her chatelaine bag for a pocket- 
 handkerchief. "Oh, mercy on us, how can we ever 
 go by here again!" 
 
 Dunn wanted to murder the Molkerei. The 
 village began on the other side, and it was neither 
 practical nor possible to get the conversation back 
 to where it had been broken off. If people are talk- 
 ing about anything, they can give it up and then re- 
 turn to it later, but when they are being very serious 
 indeed over nothing, it all has to be given up until 
 there 's a dark wood or a new moon or something of 
 that sort. 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie found the village uninteresting, and 
 so did her escort. 
 
 " It seems a curious place for Lizzie to have picked 
 out," she said, with sincere wonder. 
 
 "I never can see any sense in half the things she 
 does," said her husband, still more sincerely. 
 
 "Such a hill !" panted the lady. 
 
 "Can't I help you?" said the man. 
 
 "No, you can't, because Frank may pop out from 
 anywhere. That's what vexes me so with him, he 
 does appear so unexpectedly. That's what caused 
 all the row in Harzburg. Frank appeared unex- 
 pectedly three times, and the third time it was per- 
 fectly impossible to explain things. It was one of 
 those times that there 's nothing to explain, but 
 you just can't explain it. You know? "
 
 60 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 Dunn looked wise. "Oh, I know," he said, with 
 deep significance. 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie looked up at him. " I know that you 
 know," she said. "I'm going to take such comfort 
 telling you things. I did have such a hard time at 
 Harzburg. I would n't breathe it because I 'm too 
 proud to allow myself to suffer or be silly, but do you 
 know, Mr. Dunn, Frank forgot everything due me, 
 and went off bicycling down to the Ilsenthal with a 
 French woman, and I know positively that she has 
 false teeth!" 
 
 "Poor child!" said Dunn. He was beginning to 
 feel as he had n't felt hi years. Keenly anticipative 
 and happy. 
 
 "I'll tell you all about it when we're out walking. 
 Is that the Gtos&o/f" 
 
 "No, it's further on. Was she a widow?" 
 
 "I don't know what she was except that she was 
 French. She was so made up; it was sickening. 
 But a man never sees all that. And to think that 
 Frank would be seen with her! It made me blush 
 for him. Will was wild." 
 
 "Did Will like her, too?" 
 
 " Like her, too ! He was wild on my account. That 
 was why he left. Will Belden is a gentleman in spite 
 of his good heart, and he could not stand seeing me 
 neglected." 
 
 " I can't imagine you neglected," said Dunn.
 
 DUNN MEETS MRS. ELLERSLIE 61 
 
 "Neglected ! " Mrs. Ellerslie quite started. " I'm 
 never neglected. I always have a lot of men about 
 me even when I have n't just one. I should like to 
 see myself neglected." She spoke very warmly. 
 
 " Oh, no one could ever neglect you," said the man, 
 with conviction. 
 
 "No, it's further on." 
 
 "What a terrible hill!" 
 
 "Yes, it's awful. But fancy what it was when 
 Bobby and I " 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie halted. "Bobby ! Is Bobby here?" 
 
 " Y-yes. Lizzie did n't feel easy over leaving him 
 in Hanover." 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie had to pause and swallow some feel- 
 ing. "Children always run here and there so," she 
 said, going on again. "But he has a nurse, I 
 suppose?" 
 
 "A nurse! Why, he's twelve years old." 
 
 "Really? I should think you'd hate to have him 
 lose any time from his studies. Is that the Gasthoff " 
 
 "It's the stable." 
 
 "Oh, then we must be nearly there?" 
 
 "We are." 
 
 In fact it was but four minutes later that Mrs. 
 Ellerslie and Mrs. Dunn found themselves clasped in 
 one another's arms. 
 
 "Bolt the door," said Mrs. Ellerslie. "Oh, Lizzie,
 
 62 
 
 I 'm so glad to be with you. I wish there were no men 
 in all the wide world; I do indeed." 
 
 "You poor dear," said Mrs. Dunn, hastening to 
 light Mrs. Ellerslie's personal spirit lamp. "I'm so 
 sorry for you. But you'll have a nice rest here. 
 There isn't a chance of any sort of complications. 
 If Will does n't go, I promise you that when we go 
 to walk either I '11 walk with him or else pair him off 
 with that girl, and whenever you walk with my hus- 
 band Bobby will go, too. Then Frank can't be 
 jealous." 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie hugged her friend ecstatically. " You 
 are the dearest dear, but," loosing her, "you must 
 not bother too much. Frank is ridiculous and he 
 must learn his lessons in life. For my part, I consider 
 myself free to walk with any one I want to. Be- 
 tween you and me, after what happened at Harz- 
 burg I should be a fool if I did n't." 
 
 "What happened at Harzburg?" Mrs. Dunn's 
 voice was full of tender sympathy. 
 
 "A wretched little bogus French princess or some- 
 thing of that sort, and Frank perfectly mad about 
 her. Dyed hair, my dear ; you could see it whenever 
 she was in the sunlight, and a figure well, you 
 could have run a darning-needle into her anywhere, 
 I know." 
 
 "Are n't men funny?" said Mrs. Dunn. 
 
 "Funny! I should think so, indeed. I tried to
 
 DUNN MEETS MRS. ELLERSLIE 63 
 
 bring Frank to reason, but you know Frank ! Why, 
 he insisted that her hair was that color. I lost all 
 patience with him. But when will the trunks get 
 up?" 
 
 "Oh, my dear, I don't know. Right after dinner, 
 maybe." 
 
 " Right after dinner ! But, my dear, I must have 
 my things. I'm positively filthy. Look at me!" 
 
 "Oh, Nellie, you look lovely, as you always do." 
 
 " No, I don't, my dear. I know how I look as well 
 as any one." 
 
 "But what difference does it make, anyhow?" 
 
 " Difference ! Oh, Lizzie, you 're insufferable ! " 
 
 Mrs. Dunn smiled. But then her smile altered sud- 
 denly. "Goodness, I forgot to set the kettle on the 
 lamp," she said. 
 
 "Yes, so you did," said Mrs. Ellerslie. "Well, dear, 
 you can set it on now. Look at my new ring, dear. 
 Frank got it for me in Bozen." 
 
 "Is n't it pretty?" 
 
 "I think so. Oh, we had such an awful tune in 
 Bozen! And in Venice! Well, my dear, just wait 
 until I tell you about Venice ! It 's no wonder I 've 
 got a new ring!" 
 
 Mrs. Dunn looked highly commiserative. 
 
 "I knew you'd sympathize with me," Mrs. Ellerslie 
 said, tenderly; "I've hardly been able to wait to get 
 here. I told Frank all along that you'd sympathize
 
 64 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 with me. That's what made him not want to 
 come." 
 
 "Did n't he want to come?" 
 
 "Didn't he want to come! Lizzie, he's furious 
 over being here. Don't let him know I told you, 
 will you, dear? It would make it so uncomfortable, 
 and he'd never forgive me, for, just between our- 
 selves, I promised him solemnly that if he would 
 come I 'd never let you know that he did n't want 
 to."
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THEY ALL TAKE TEA AND SOME GO OUT TO WALK 
 
 "I DON'T much care about going out," said Mrs. 
 Ellerslie, playing with her teaspoon and trying to 
 look meaningly at Belden. "I'm so tired." 
 
 "I'm going," said Belden, promptly, at that. 
 
 It was five o'clock on their first day, and the bachelor 
 now had a real reason for not wanting to be banished. 
 He thought that the reason had nothing to do with 
 the peculiarly sweet, childlike charm of Grace Waters. 
 He thought that the reason concerned Mrs. Dunn, and 
 Mrs. Dunn alone. He and Mrs. Dunn had not found 
 time for that earnestly asked secret rendezvous yet, 
 but the day had been rough enough to cause "any 
 decent fellow to be darned sorry for that woman." 
 Ellerslie had returned from his walk after dinner was 
 all cleared away and wanted his hot. Dunn never 
 liked unsalted butter ; he could eat it if he had to do 
 so, but he did n't like it. Grace Waters, thanks to 
 constant lighting of the spirit lamp and constant 
 repetitions of the hot-water bag and the teapot, was 
 recovered enough to be able to learn that she could n't 
 have a stove for love or money. Mrs. Ellerslie had 
 
 5
 
 66 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 unpacked that one of her trunks which the donkey 
 first brought, and so been enabled to flutter through 
 the hall in a green and gold kimono, which made 
 Mrs. Dunn feel that her friend was very silly, after 
 all. 
 
 "She just does that on account of Will Belden," 
 she said, disgustedly, to her husband. She always 
 wore a dark blue outing flannel Mother Hubbard 
 herself a thing that showed on its surface that 
 its wearer wanted to be covered and would rather 
 not be met. 
 
 Dunn made no answer. He just smiled. He knew 
 what he knew, but Bobby was waiting to have his 
 pencil sharpened, and conversation had to wait, too. 
 Besides, he already had a feeling that he was in honor 
 bound not to agree to any fault in Mrs. Ellerslie. 
 Particularly not to agree with his wife. 
 
 And so now it was tea-time. The tea had n't been 
 all that it might have been, as Mrs. Ellerslie only 
 drank Orange Pekoe and made it in quite another way. 
 
 "I never saw any one make tea in all my life the 
 way you do, Lizzie," she said, looking significantly at 
 Will Belden; " did you ever, Will?" 
 
 Will Belden stared hard at the view. 
 
 " Did you ever see any one make tea as Lizzie does? 
 Answer, Will!" 
 
 Then he started. "Me? What is it? You were 
 saying?"
 
 THEY ALL TAKE TEA 67 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie laughed and laughed. " I know what 
 you are thinking of, Will, but there's no use. Not 
 to-day, anyhow." 
 
 Then he looked vexed and Ellerslie looked mad 
 and Mrs. Ellerslie looked perfectly delighted. 
 
 Ellerslie never took tea himself. He did n't like 
 tea, so he called it effeminate. 
 
 "But don't think of me," he said. "I can get a 
 glass of beer down-stairs. I'm easily suited." 
 
 "Easily suited!" said his wife. "Did you say 
 easily suited, dear?" 
 
 "How dead sick we shall all get of that view! " 
 Dunn said, hurriedly, to change the subject. He 
 did n't want them to row before Bobby. 
 
 "I did think that Harzburg was so lovely," said 
 Mrs. Ellerslie, meaning to agree with him, "and I 
 had so many bureau drawers. I have n't one bureau 
 drawer here. Do you remember the Ilsenthal, Frank? 
 Oh, but you did n't go there, did you? I went there 
 with the Hauptmann" 
 
 "Yes, I did go there," said Frank Ellerslie, fero- 
 ciously. "I bicycled the whole way up to it and 
 walked the rest." 
 
 "Oh, I remember," she laughed. "You remember, 
 too, don't you, Will? That was Frank's charitable 
 day " turning to Dunn, " do you know, this 
 husband of mine made up his mind to be real sweet for 
 once in his life, so he picked out the ugliest woman in
 
 68 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 the house and took her up the Ilsenthal. Didn't 
 she look funny going off on her bicycle, Will?" 
 
 But Will Belden was stirring his tea. 
 
 "Could I have just one more cup, Mamma?" 
 Bobby asked. 
 
 "Don't say 'could I have,' Bobby; say 'if you 
 please.' " 
 
 "But I do please, Mamma." 
 
 Dunn laughed. "That's clever, do you know it?" 
 he said to his wife. 
 
 Mrs. Dunn just looked at her husband. "You've 
 had four cups, Bobby," she said, pouring for him as 
 she spoke. 
 
 "I don't see how the child can drink so much of 
 such tea," said Mrs. Ellerslie, contemplating him 
 thoughtfully. 
 
 "I like Mamma's tea," said Bobby 
 
 Mrs. Dunn felt her heart blood flow towards her 
 offspring. She gave him two extra lumps of sugar. 
 
 "If you'll boil some water, I believe I'll go back to 
 bed," said Grace Waters, "I I feel a little queer 
 again." 
 
 "It's the tea," exclaimed Mrs. Ellerslie. "No 
 human being ever ought to risk strange tea." 
 
 "But I bought this myself in Brunswick," said 
 Mrs. Dunn, getting up to light the spirit lamp. 
 
 "Fancy buying tea in Brunswick," said Mrs. Eller- 
 slie, smiling hard at Belden, who was always carefully
 
 THEY ALL TAKE TEA 69 
 
 not looking her way. "You are the most unsophis- 
 ticated shopper, Lizzie. Who would ever dream of 
 buying tea in Brunswick ! " 
 
 "What you need," said Ellerslie, sharply, to Grace, 
 "is to go to walk. You need to get out in the 
 air." 
 
 "We all need that, I think," said Mrs. Dunn, 
 briskly. "Let us go and see the ruined castle. We 
 can have a nice stroll before supper." 
 
 "I never stroll," said Ellerslie, "I walk." 
 
 It was right here that Mrs. Ellerslie made the re- 
 mark that opens the chapter. When Belden capped 
 it with the statement that he was going, she looked 
 harder than ever at him, and he looked harder than 
 ever away. 
 
 "Well, I'll go with Mr. Belden," said Mrs. Dunn, 
 promptly. "I'll settle Grace comfortably, and then 
 we two will go out, anyway." 
 
 "All right," said Belden, cheerfully. 
 
 "And you'll go, won't you, dear?" said Mrs. Eller- 
 slie to her husband; "or will it make you too lone- 
 some for the Ilsenthal?" 
 
 "I'll stay with you," said Ellerslie; "perhaps, if we 
 have an hour in the room alone together, you can show 
 me where you've put some of my things. I'm really 
 curious to know." 
 
 "Don't you see how we need a valet some one 
 to travel with us, Lizzie?" said Mrs. Ellerslie, turn-
 
 70 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 ing to her friend. " And I just beg and beg and Frank 
 won't get one, and then he makes sarcastic remarks 
 about where I put his clothes. A valet would be such 
 a comfort. There was a perfect dear in the hotel in 
 Innsbruck, one of those men who would have been 
 able to do ten thousand little things for me, too ; and 
 I talked and talked, but do you think Frank would 
 engage him? Oh, no!" 
 
 "I fancy not," said Ellerslie. "I have a hard 
 enough time competing with the fascinations of ordi- 
 nary men, but I'd stand no show at all with those 
 of a valet." 
 
 "Mr. Dunn," said Mrs. Ellerslie, her eyes snapping 
 and her cheeks flushing angrily, "will you take me 
 to walk? Instantly?" 
 
 Dunn looked at his wife, and his wife's face im- 
 plored him not only to go, but to go at once. 
 
 "I'll get my stick," he said, springing up. 
 
 "Run for your hat, Bobby," said Mrs. Dunn, 
 hastily. "Papa will take you, too, I know." 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie was getting her hat and Dunn was 
 getting his stick, and neither heard. 
 
 Ellerslie sat fiercely silent. 
 
 "Oh, Cousin Lizzie," said Grace Waters, who felt 
 that the atmosphere was strained and that she ought 
 to say something, "the spirit lamp is going out." 
 
 "Yes, yes. I'll fill it in a minute," said Mrs. 
 Dunn.
 
 THEY ALL TAKE TEA 71 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie and Dunn clattered down the hall 
 together at this minute. Bobby couldn't find his 
 hat and came running back to say so. 
 
 "Never mind, go as you are," exclaimed his 
 mother, hi agony. "Run quickly, dear; you can 
 overtake them." 
 
 Bobby ran. 
 
 Grace Waters rose weakly. "I guess I'll go 
 to my room," she said. "You'll bring me the hot- 
 water bag when the kettle boils, won't you, Cousin 
 Lizzie?" 
 
 She went out. 
 
 Ellerslie rose. "I'm going down-stairs to get a 
 glass of beer," he said, and left the room. 
 
 Mrs. Dunn was refilling the spirit lamp. 
 
 Belden sat still by the tea-table. 
 
 "What a beast that man is!" he said, quietly, 
 after a while. "What are we going to do about 
 him?" 
 
 "But she's such a little fool," Mrs. Dunn said. 
 "Why does she say those things?" 
 
 "Why does he say those things, you mean." 
 
 "No, I don't. She says things all the time with 
 the deliberate intention of making him wild." 
 
 "Is n't the same spirit in his remarks?" 
 
 Just here the lamp overflowed. 
 
 "Oh dear!" Mrs. Dunn sopped up the alcohol 
 with her handkerchief. "It's all a mess," she added
 
 72 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 desperately, not making it clear whether she meant 
 the overflow or her friend's marital situation. 
 
 "Yes, it's a mess," admitted Belden, referring 
 wholly and entirely to the Ellerslies, "but do you 
 know it's darned funny, too?" 
 
 "Funny!" said Mrs. Dunn, looking all about for 
 matches. "I don't see anything funny in it." 
 
 "It's so funny to me that I hate to go away and 
 leave the circus," said Belden; "do you think it will 
 really hurt if I stay?" 
 
 "Oh," said Mrs. Dunn, distressedly. "I don't see 
 how you can stay. It will make everything so un- 
 comfortable. You know what you said after dinner; 
 you said that you felt in honor bound to go." 
 
 "But he had n't come back from his walk then, and 
 she was so worried. I thought perhaps he was mad 
 about me." 
 
 "No, it was n't that, but " 
 
 "You're forgetting to light that lamp," said Belden. 
 
 "So I am. Oh dear! I'm just so bothered; 
 you see just between ourselves I do wish that 
 I had never asked them. They're no kind of people 
 for this sort of party." 
 
 "I know," said Belden, "but all the same they're 
 such fun to watch. Please let me stay. Please let 
 me!" 
 
 Mrs. Dunn began to pick up the tea-things. He 
 sprang to help her.
 
 THEY ALL TAKE TEA 73 
 
 "I'll pick up tea-things, make beds, do what- 
 ever you say. And I'll be innocuous. I'll always 
 walk with Bobby." 
 
 " I wish you 'd let me pick up the tea-things ; men 
 make such a mess of the little dabs of butter. And 
 you can't walk with Bobby. Nellie wants him with 
 her always." 
 
 "Did she say so?" 
 
 " Yes, so Frank won't be jealous." 
 
 Belden laughed. "Bobby won't keep him from 
 being jealous," he said. "He's just naturally dyed- 
 in-the-wool jealous. I was n't to blame there at 
 Harzburg ; honestly I was n't a bit to blame. I 
 did n't know they were there until I got there." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn didn't believe that, but she didn't 
 say so. "I don't think it's nice for married women 
 to flirt," she said, thoughtfully. 
 
 Belden gave her a sweeping glance and smiled a 
 man-smile over the transparency of womankind. 
 
 "It was really Nellie who went to pieces in Harz- 
 burg," he said, after a minute. "She was awfully 
 mad over a French woman." 
 
 "Did you see the French woman?" 
 
 "Yes. She was n't my style, but she was 
 pretty." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn paused in her labors. "Will," she said, 
 solemnly, "just between ourselves, did she dye her 
 hair?"
 
 74: JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "No, she didn't dye her hair. She wasn't over 
 twenty-five." 
 
 " Oh, Nellie gave me the impression that shewas old! " 
 
 "Why, she was a bride." 
 
 "A bride! Did she have a husband?" 
 
 "Of course she had a husband, and he went up the 
 Ilsenthal with them. That's what made Nellie look 
 so foolish." 
 
 "My goodness, didn't the woman go alone with 
 Frank?" 
 
 "Alone! Why, there were fifteen hi the party." 
 
 "Did you go?" 
 
 "No, I couldn't go; I hadn't any bicycle. You 
 know, there 's a good ways to go before you get to the 
 Thai? They bicycled that." 
 
 "Well, I declare!" 
 
 Just here Ellerslie opened the door without knock- 
 ing. "Oh, excuse me," he said, apologizing, "I 
 thought you'd all gone out." 
 
 He smiled as he spoke, one of those smiles that 
 would make a great-grandmother uncomfortable over 
 being caught sitting alone with anybody else's great- 
 grandfather. 
 
 "We're just going," said Belden, rising at once. 
 "Won't you come with us?" 
 
 "No, thanks," said Ellerslie, continuing to smile. 
 "I don't care to play third fiddle any more than my 
 marriage vows compel."
 
 THEY ALL TAKE TEA 75 
 
 "I'll stay and you go with Mrs. Dunn," said Belden. 
 He was far from being proof against the smile. 
 
 "No, I'll stay with Grace, and you two " began 
 Mrs. Dunn, but there she suddenly remembered what 
 two they were, and the words died on her lips. 
 
 "If nobody can ever do what they please here," 
 said Ellerslie, ceasing to smile and beginning to look 
 angry, "we might as well all leave at once. I don't 
 want to do anything unless I want to do it, I know 
 that." 
 
 "What do you want to do?" asked Mrs. Dunn. 
 She was now beginning to fill the hot-water bag. 
 
 "I want to stay and read." 
 
 "Come on," said Belden to the lady, deciding to 
 ignore Ellerslie's smile and flee from his temper 
 at any cost, "we'll have an hour before supper. 
 Come on." 
 
 "I'll just run with this to Grace," Mrs. Dunn said. 
 
 "And I'll get my stick," said Belden, interrupting 
 her because he didn't want to be left in the room 
 with Ellerslie. Of course his retreat left Mrs. Dunn 
 alone with Ellerslie. 
 
 "Is he going to stay the whole fortnight?" the 
 husband demanded forthwith. "I want to know." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn stood helpless and stricken, the hot- 
 water bag hanging its head hi her hand. 
 
 "Understand, I'm not jealous," said Ellerslie, 
 ferociously. "Nellie always likes to gjve it out that
 
 76 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 I'm jealous, but, between ourselves, I'm about the 
 least jealous man alive. Nellie knows why I can't 
 abide Belden, and as long as we're all here together 
 I don't mind being frank and telling you right in the 
 start what I can't stand in the man. It's his 
 borrowing." 
 
 " His borrowing ! " said Mrs. Dunn, dumbfounded. 
 
 "His borrowing," repeated Ellerslie. "Of course, 
 I can't lock my room on account of Nellie, and I 
 have my own opinion of a man who does n't own a 
 clothes-brush or mind getting collars, cravats, or any- 
 thing else from a friend, without so much as by your 
 leave. You can't tour Europe with a knapsack and 
 not lay in fresh supplies somehow, and why, the 
 man's got on one of my undershirts this very minute." 
 He wound up in a wide burst of wrath. 
 
 "Oh dear!" said Mrs. Dunn; she had always 
 known Belden to be a happy-go-lucky sort of mortal, 
 but she had never guessed this of him. 
 
 "I hear him coming back now," said Ellerslie, 
 turning towards the window. "Well, all I can say 
 is, that night that all his things were pitched into 
 my room I was glad to see my razor again, that's 
 all." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn, stricken quite dumb and thoughtful 
 by this new and unexpected light shed over the ins 
 and outs of her party, went out into the hall and 
 carried the hot-water bag in to Grace.
 
 THEY ALL TAKE TEA 77 
 
 "Oh, Cousin Lizzie, it's so nice to have my own 
 nightgown. That one of yours had a seam right 
 down the inside of the middle of the back. Has Mr. 
 Belden gone out without you?" 
 
 "No, he's waiting. I'm sorry about the gown; 
 you see, it was the only clean one that I had with a 
 high neck." 
 
 "What are you going to do now?" 
 
 "I'm going out to walk." 
 
 "Oh, yes, is he nice? He seems nice." 
 
 " I don't know. I 've never seen much of him since 
 I was a young lady." 
 
 "Is he as old as that? I thought he was just a 
 young man." 
 
 " Why, he is a young man, as men go. Let me see, 
 he must be about thirty." 
 
 "He 's younger than you are." 
 
 "Yes, indeed, two or three years, or even more." 
 
 "How old is Mrs. Ellerslie?" 
 
 " She 's let me see she 's lots younger than I 
 am; oh, she's about twenty-nine." 
 
 " Her husband is n't nice to her, is he, Cousin 
 Lizzie? I thought it was so natural her wanting a 
 valet, and he was so disagreeable about it." 
 
 "He is disagreeable," said Mrs. Dunn, thinking 
 uneasily of the waiting Belden. 
 
 "This hot-water bag is such a comfort. I believe 
 I'll keep it in my room while I'm here. It'll be so
 
 78 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 nice cold nights, even when I have n't neuralgia. I 
 must get me one, sometime." 
 
 "I always have one with me/' said Mrs. Dunn. 
 
 "I don't see how you can ever keep track of so 
 many things. I never could do it. I 'd far rather go 
 without the things." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn edged towards the door. "I'll come in 
 and see you as soon as I come back," she said 
 
 "Thank you, dear Cousin Lizzie. I'm very glad 
 to be here, even if everything is so uncomfortable. 
 You see, I realize that it is n't your fault any 
 of it." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn smiled faintly. "That's sweet of you, 
 dear; good-bye." 
 
 "Good-bye." 
 
 Then she got away, closed the door carefully, and 
 found Belden sitting on the trunk to the left of her 
 door. 
 
 "Locked, I see," he said, tapping it significantly 
 with his cane as he got up, and smiling. 
 
 "I always lock trunks that stand in public halls," 
 she said, as they went towards the stairs. 
 
 "Even when the Ellerslies don't have the room 
 opposite?" asked Belden. 
 
 She felt this to be unworthy of him, considering his 
 undershirt. " I don't know about the Ellerslies," she 
 said, "but I despise borrowing." 
 
 "So do I," declared Belden, heartily. (They were
 
 THEY ALL TAKE TEA 79 
 
 in the lower hall now.) " That's one reason why I 
 dislike Frank Ellerslie so." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn felt feeble. "Does he borrow?" she 
 asked. 
 
 "Does he borrow!" said Belden. "Why, he's 
 got on one of my undershirts right now. Took it out 
 of my knapsack that night when my things were 
 pitched into his room. That was one reason why I 
 walked out of Harzburg; I wanted to hang on to a 
 few American luxuries." 
 
 "Oh dear!" cried Mrs. Dunn. 
 
 They were crossing the court and climbing out into 
 the road. 
 
 "I'm a brute to go finding fault with anything, 
 when you've got so much to bother you," Belden 
 declared, a sudden remorse flooding him at the sound 
 of her voice, "and it's so pretty here, too. Just to 
 look at those trees ought to make humans ashamed of 
 themselves. What does it matter who wears who's 
 undershirt, after all ! " 
 
 "Yes I mean no," said Mrs. Dunn, faintly. 
 She was wondering if any one ever told the truth, 
 and also what man had on what undershirt. 
 
 "Which way shall we go?" asked Belden. 
 
 "Oh, I don't care." She spoke truthfully, anyhow. 
 
 "I suppose we shall soon learn every road hi the 
 neighborhood. Of course, I only know one now. I 
 got lost trying the second one, you know."
 
 80 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "What one do you know?" 
 
 "The one from Schloss Oelber." 
 
 "You walked that, did n't you?" 
 
 "I walked from Goslar." 
 
 "Did you like Goslar?" 
 
 "As well as I could like any place that I struck in 
 such a temper. I don't often get mad, but I was 
 awfully mad that day." 
 
 " Over the undershirt? " 
 
 " He did n't have the undershirt then ; he only took 
 that last night. He had my razor, though. I have 
 my opinion of a man who'll use another man's razor. 
 But I did n't mind any of that so much. I was mad 
 then over Nellie." 
 
 "What had she done?" 
 
 " Oh, she just makes me mad." 
 
 "Don't you really like her? Just between our- 
 selves?" 
 
 "Of course I like her, I've always liked her. But 
 she's so ready to let a man in for a row, and I hate 
 rows. I never play the idiot with married women." 
 
 " But you but you pay her attention." 
 
 "But I don't want to pay her attention! I've 
 always gotten on so nicely with them, I was the one 
 man that always had managed to get on with them 
 both. Until Harzburg." 
 
 "What did happen at Harzburg?" 
 
 "I don't know myself. Between ourselves no one
 
 81 
 
 can ever tell just what is the truth of what Nellie 
 says about any one, you know." 
 
 "But tell me all you can. You see, all I know is 
 that she suggested you for this party, and said her 
 husband would love to be in the country with you, as 
 you were such friends; and then, after everything 
 was arranged, she wrote me to never let Frank know 
 that she had asked me to ask you. I have n't had a 
 chance to get her side of it yet, but I 'd like to know 
 yours." 
 
 "I haven't any side. I'm just the victim. And, 
 confidentially, I don't even know that I'm that." 
 
 They had turned into a wood's road, and the placid, 
 majestic stillness of the forest reigned about them. 
 There was something of the impassive standpoint of 
 the Sphinx in the way that the great elms locked 
 branches over the inquisition into the pros and cons 
 of the Harzburg imbroglio. 
 
 "It's so beautiful here," said Mrs. Dunn. "I do 
 love the woods. They impress one so. And, oh, 
 Will, when you see the castle! Don't you want to 
 go up there now?" 
 
 "No, not now. I'd rather just walk." 
 
 "We'll walk then. Well, go on with your 
 story." 
 
 "See the light coming through the trees there," 
 said Belden, pointing. "I suppose that's the west, 
 isn't it? And so, you see, I came to Harzburg 
 
 6
 
 82 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 because Nellie wrote that Frank was going off on a 
 fuss-tour, and that it would help her lots if I'd 
 help her to get down here with her trunks." 
 
 "But he didn't go, did he? Oh, look at those 
 mushrooms ! I wonder if they are poisonous ! Well, 
 and then?" 
 
 "No, he didn't go; he made the bicycle trip 
 instead." 
 
 "Was everything pleasant up to then? I'm so 
 interested ! " 
 
 " Pleasant ! Why, he was in and out of my room 
 all day, taking things. I could n't hang onto so 
 much as a match." 
 
 "Did I lock my door when I came out?" Mrs. 
 Dunn asked, suddenly. 
 
 "No, we left Ellerslie hi there, you know." 
 
 "Oh, yes, so we did." For a minute she looked 
 very unhappy. 
 
 "By George, this would be a lovely walk to take 
 with a girl," said Belden, looking around. 
 
 "I wonder if Grace is much of a walker," said Mrs. 
 Dunn. "Oh, there's a rabbit ! Well, go on." 
 
 "Where was I? Oh, yes, that day that Frank ran 
 off with the French bride." 
 
 "I want to know all about her. Did she have 
 false teeth? Nellie says so. Did you say her husband 
 went, too?" 
 
 " His bicycle broke, and he came home early. I 've
 
 THEY ALL TAKE TEA 83 
 
 wondered sometimes if that was n't where the trouble 
 came in. You see, between ourselves, Nellie and I 
 did go out walking, and you know how tired out she 
 gets walking, and, well, that Frenchman left his 
 bicycle or sent it by a boy or I don't know what; 
 anyway, he came right out of the woods behind 
 us." 
 
 "Oh, Will! Oh!" 
 
 "It was deuced unfortunate. Of course he must 
 have said something about it afterwards to Frank. 
 A Frenchman always says something. They're so 
 spiteful. And he was mad about his own wife, too, 
 of course. Oh, these woods are pretty, I must say." 
 
 "I knew you'd love them. Poor Nellie! So then 
 her trouble began ! " 
 
 "Yes, that very night. I left the next morning. 
 Frank returned my slippers. I don't know why, 
 I 'm sure, for he did n't return anything else, and 
 don't mention this even to your husband I found 
 a note she'd managed to stuff in one toe without his 
 knowing." 
 
 "Perhaps she got him to return the slippers just 
 so she could send you the note !" Mrs. Dunn looked 
 all-wise. 
 
 " Perhaps ; but it was the greatest luck chance, 
 I mean that I ever found it. That was the note I 
 had in my knapsack." 
 
 "Why do men deliberately keep such things?"
 
 84 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "They don't deliberately keep them. They for- 
 get they've got them." 
 
 "Well, and then? Oh, there's another rabbit !" 
 
 "So then I left. I couldn't do anything else, 
 you see. And that 's all I know." 
 
 "Oh dear!" said Mrs. Dunn, with deep feeling. 
 "It's awful just awful. But you'll have to go; 
 that's plain." 
 
 They walked on without saying more for quite a 
 while. 
 
 "But I don't want to go," Belden burst forth then. 
 "I want to stay. I'll promise to always walk with 
 you, if you'll only let me stay." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn took no offense. "I don't want to 
 make any more trouble between them," was all that 
 she said. 
 
 They turned just here, and as they turned they saw 
 Dunn, Mrs. Ellerslie, and Bobby approaching. Mrs. 
 Ellerslie was talking with great animation, and Bobby 
 had his face upturned and Dunn had his down- 
 turned, with deep interest. 
 
 "They look happy," commented Belden. 
 
 "Yes," said Mrs. Dunn, well pleased. "Perhaps 
 it will all work out right," she added, hopefully. 
 
 Just then Bobby saw his mother and rushed to her. 
 
 "Oh, Mamma, I did n't see you a bit till just now. 
 Could you see us long? Mrs. Ellerslie said she 
 wondered."
 
 THEY ALL TAKE TEA 85 
 
 "No, dear, we just came around the bend. Did 
 you have a nice walk?" 
 
 "Yes, awful nice. Only I'm tired. Papa had me 
 for his dog, and I had to play smell birds 'way, 'way, 
 far off in the fields."
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE INS AND THE OUTS 
 
 "I DON'T know what to do now," Mrs. Dunn was 
 saying to Belden. "Of course, if he has a wagon, 
 Bobby will want to go off to drive, and you know 
 how donkeys run away?" 
 
 "No, I don't," said Belden, who had not only stayed 
 on in the party but had managed his affairs so 
 well that he was waiting for Grace to go to walk 
 with him now. "I've always heard of donkeys as 
 having the name of being slow." 
 
 "I'm sure I hope that this one is slow like the rest, 
 then. Oh dear, I do wish Bob would consult me about 
 things. I didn't mind his going off to Hildesheim 
 that way with Mrs. Ellerslie although it was a 
 nasty trick, was n't it? But for him to go and buy 
 a second-hand donkey-wagon for Bobby! I don't 
 want Bobby in a donkey-wagon, anyway. I want 
 him to run and get strong, but Bob never consults 
 me." 
 
 " Nellie got herself into a bad fix with that day in 
 Hildesheim," said Belden. "Just between ourselves,
 
 THE INS AND THE OUTS 87 
 
 I don't think they ought to have done it. I would n't 
 care to have my wife run off like that, I swear I 
 would n't." 
 
 "Well, I think myself that they should have said 
 something, but of course if they 'd said anything 
 Frank would never have let Nellie go. He's that 
 sort, and she knew it perfectly well. I did n't mind 
 Bob's going, for it gave me a whole morning to 
 straighten out our things. Oh dear, I do wish that 
 Nellie and he would n't come in and get my things 
 in that way ! They are so free and easy." 
 
 "Nellie says Frank took that morning to muss up 
 all theirs." 
 
 " Oh, he was furious; he banged about awfully. I 
 don't know what I would do if Bob ever acted so." 
 
 "What are you looking for?" 
 
 "I want to fill the spirit lamp, and I believe they 
 must have come in and taken the alcohol." 
 
 Belden looked painfully unconcerned as to what 
 the Ellerslies took from the Dunns. "But he's got 
 my pocket-knife," he said suddenly. "Where is he, 
 anyway?" 
 
 "He's out walking. The way he goes thrashing 
 over the landscape when he's mad is awful. I never 
 saw a man walk so fast. Nellie says if she takes a 
 walk with him it lays her out for two days. Perhaps 
 he knows that." 
 
 "Well, if he does, I should think he'd take her out
 
 88 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 to walk oftener. What sort of people are the Waters, 
 anyhow?" 
 
 " The Waters? The Waters? Oh, you mean Grace's 
 family. Why, they're real nice people; she only 
 has her parents, and her father died ever so long 
 ago. Just between ourselves, Will, I do wish Nellie 
 would let you marry that girl; she's such a nice 
 girl!" 
 
 "How can Nellie block the game?" 
 
 "It's impossible to explain to a man; but she 
 just says little things all the time as if you belonged 
 to her, body and soul. And, of course, they impress 
 a girl." 
 
 " But whenever she 's talking of any man she says 
 things like that." 
 
 " Yes, of course. But they seem less pointed when 
 the man is n't here." 
 
 Belden became suddenly serious, laid his stick and 
 hat on a chair, and came out and sat down opposite 
 Mrs. Dunn. "But how under the sun can I help her 
 saying anything that she pleases?" he asked, earn- 
 estly. "You know that's the difficulty with Nellie; 
 she can say whatever she pleases, and she looks so 
 darned pretty saying it that everybody supposes that 
 she's telling the truth." 
 
 "I don't know when she's telling the truth," said 
 Mrs. Dunn, frankly. "She said yesterday that you 
 were very disagreeable in Harzburg when Frank
 
 THE INS AND THE OUTS 89 
 
 wanted your razor; she said she would say this for 
 Frank, he might be mean in small ways, but he was 
 certainly generous in big things; she said he might 
 break her heart and ruin her life, but he'd never 
 refuse a razor to a friend." 
 
 "Why, he took the razor and he's got it now," 
 cried Belden, hotly. "I bought myself another hi 
 Goslar a mighty poor one it is, too." 
 
 "I quite believe you," soothed Mrs. Dunn. "Oh 
 dear, I don't know what I am going to do about 
 either of them. I can't lock my door without having 
 it look pointed, and they go in and get things from 
 morning till night. I'm about crazy. Nellie took 
 my hairpins and the tea-strainer this morning." 
 
 "Where is she just at present?" 
 
 "Out walking with Bob." 
 
 "Borrowed him now, has she?" 
 
 "Oh, I don't mind Bob, but it's awful about the 
 hairpins and the tea-strainer. I miss them so. I 
 need them." 
 
 " I would n't mind anything if she 'd quit lugging 
 me into all she says. I would n't mind that so much, 
 for you all know Nellie, but when she sends me up- 
 stairs to get her veil, I get mad over what Miss Waters 
 must think." 
 
 "Well, you know I thought you'd better not stay." 
 
 A light step sounded in the hall without. 
 
 "I take it all back," cried Belden, hastily. "I'll
 
 90 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 take anything or everything back, only I must be 
 allowed to stay." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn laughed, and just then Grace opened 
 the door. 
 
 "Was I long?" she asked, smiling. 
 
 "Not a bit," said Belden, leaping for his hat and 
 stick; " and now where shall we go? " 
 
 " Do go and dig on the Schloss," said Mrs. Dunn. 
 "I'm so wild to get that piece dug out, and no one 
 seems to take the slightest interest." 
 
 "There are so many roots," said Belden. "I dug 
 there yesterday for a while, but I can't get up any 
 enthusiasm. I don't believe that Barbarossa stayed 
 on that side much." He moved door- wards. 
 
 "I'll go and dig there to-morrow, I promise you, 
 Cousin Lizzie," Grace said, sweetly. Then they went 
 out. 
 
 "Do you suppose she really and truly does want 
 us to go and dig in that hole?" Belden asked in a 
 pleasantly confidential tone, as they went down- 
 stairs. "What difference can it make?" 
 
 "I don't know," said Grace, meeting the tone 
 half-way. "I don't care a bit about old castles 
 myself. You always catch your feet in the weeds." 
 
 " Lizzie seems to get such a lot of fun out of the 
 game, somehow," said Belden, thoughtfully. "I was 
 up there yesterday just before dinner tried to pry 
 up that wooden cover in the tower out in front."
 
 THE INS AND THE OUTS 91 
 
 "Did you pry it up? What's inside?" 
 
 " I could n't get it open. Did n't try very hard. 
 It was almost dinner-tune, you know. I looked 
 through the crack into the stone room below. 
 Lizzie says that's the place where they found the 
 skeletons." 
 
 " How nice ! How many were there? " 
 
 "Fifteen. In chains, too. They've got the bones 
 in a basket somewhere up there, she says. I'll take 
 you to see them any day." 
 
 "What fun ! I begin to feel quite interested in the 
 Schloss, after all." 
 
 "But you don't want to walk that way now, do 
 you? The woods are so lovely." 
 
 "Oh, no, not now. Let's walk in that sunny way 
 down by the blackberries." 
 
 " I think that 's where the others are." 
 
 "Oh don't let's go there, then. They won't want 
 us." 
 
 "They're so silly," said Belden, in comfortable 
 contempt. 
 
 "Mrs. Ellerslie 's very silly, is n't she?" said Grace. 
 "Do you think she's pretty? Some people do. She, 
 for one." 
 
 "No, I don't think she's pretty." 
 
 "I thought men all admired that sort of women." 
 
 "I don't, anyway." 
 
 The girl walked a bit nearer him, and he promptly
 
 92 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 walked a bit nearer her. " But you admire her, don't 
 you? " she asked, earnestly. 
 
 "No, I don't." 
 
 "But you did once?" 
 
 " I never did. I don't know where she ever got the 
 idea." 
 
 "Oh, Mr. Belden, you don't mean you can't 
 mean that she that she is the one that that " 
 
 "Well," said Belden, when she stopped, "I ought 
 to be tarred and feathered for being so ungentlemanly 
 as to say it, I suppose, but I just do mean it." 
 
 The girl turned her face up towards him. "I'm 
 so glad," she said, simply. 
 
 Belden walked on in silence. "There's a toad just 
 the color of the leaves," he said, presently. "Why 
 are you glad that I mean it?" he asked, a second 
 later. 
 
 "Oh, because you're so sincere and honest, and 
 she's well, just between ourselves, she talks about 
 every one in a dreadful way. She came into my 
 room last night to get my steamer-rug, and you 
 ought to have heard her!" 
 
 "I don't see what she wanted your rug for," said 
 Belden; "they 've got mine." 
 
 "There are separate beds, you know. It was 
 horribly inconvenient for me her taking it. I had 
 to go and get Cousin Lizzie's." 
 
 "What did she say?"
 
 THE INS AND THE OUTS 93 
 
 "Is n't it pretty here? So warm and soft and sun- 
 shiny. Oh, I mustn't tell you what she said; you 
 would n't any of you ever speak to one another any 
 more if I did. I was about paralyzed and she does 
 tell it all so well, too. She's awfully clever. I 
 laughed and laughed." Grace laughed a little as 
 she spoke. 
 
 "How do you like him?" Belden was conscious 
 of difficulty in not appearing vexed. 
 
 " I only had that one walk with him ; he does n't 
 like it here much, I guess." 
 
 " I should n't think that he would like it here at 
 all ; I would n't if I were he." 
 
 "I just love the country. Dear me, I believe 
 I 've got a bit of gravel in my shoe." 
 
 "Can I help?" 
 
 "No, of course not. Just wait a minute while I 
 get it out . . . there ! " 
 
 They wandered down the wide road bordered on 
 one side by the forest, on the other by the planted 
 cattle-way. 
 
 "I wonder if Mr. Dunn finds Mrs. Ellerslie enter- 
 taining," the girl said, presently. Belden wondered 
 idly why he didn't like Mrs. Ellerslie better than 
 Miss Waters, for she certainly was entertaining. No 
 doubt about that. 
 
 "She's more entertaining than his wife," he an- 
 swered, presently.
 
 94 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "Don't you like Cousin Lizzie?" (Tone of chal- 
 lenge.) 
 
 "Of course I like her. Who could help liking 
 her?" 
 
 "Yes, I feel that, too. And I don't call it fussy, 
 that way she has of always doing things and going 
 for things; I think she's very kind." 
 
 "She's kindness itself." 
 
 " You were in love with her once, too, were n't 
 you?" 
 
 "Who under the sun said so?" 
 
 "Never mind; but you were, weren't you?" 
 
 "I was only a little boy and she was a young lady 
 a young lady out in society, you know." 
 
 "It's pretty ahead there, isn't it? I do so love 
 to walk hi the country. Oh, there's another bit of 
 gravel in my shoe ! " 
 
 "What makes you wear low shoes?" 
 
 "Now you sound just exactly like Mr. Ellerslie 
 and Mr. Dunn ! " 
 
 Belden looked very vexed. No bachelor ever 
 wants to act like a married man, because he does n't 
 mean to ever become like a married man. The last 
 thing that a bachelor ever intends in getting married 
 is to become like other married men. 
 
 But he had plenty of time to get his face and his 
 disposition straightened out before Grace got this 
 bit of gravel out of her shoe.
 
 THE INS AND THE OUTS 95 
 
 "Let's go in the woods," he suggested then. 
 
 "Is it safe at this hour?" 
 
 "There are no tramps about here, and, anyway, 
 I've a stout stick." 
 
 "Oh, but it's snakes I'm afraid of." 
 
 "There are no snakes in this part of the country." 
 
 Just then a wee one wriggled right across their 
 path. Grace shrieked hi a way that made her escort 
 jump, clung madly to him for a minute, and then 
 fainted dead away. 
 
 Dunn and Mrs. Ellerslie came running up from 
 somewhere at once. 
 
 "What the devil is the matter?" Dunn asked, out 
 of breath and angry, too, for Grace's shriek had come 
 athwart his conversation this time exactly as the 
 breath of the Molkerei had blown in that past first 
 day. It had n't been any more pleasant being inter- 
 rupted this time than the other either, for Bobby 
 had deserted them and gone home with a thorn in 
 his thumb. 
 
 But such is life. 
 
 "Oh, the poor dear, what has happened?" Mrs. 
 "Ellerslie cried, her face full of becoming sympathy. 
 Then Dunn helped to lay Grace out. 
 
 " She saw a snake," Belden explained. 
 
 "A snake !" cried Mrs. Ellerslie, sharply, then threw 
 up her hands with the skill of an adept and fell into 
 Dunn's arms at once. She only wore two great
 
 96 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 stabbing pins of carved shell hi her hair, and they 
 both came out and masses of wavy hair spilt all 
 over him. 
 
 Dunn was furious with Grace for fainting and with 
 Belden for existing on that spot, since Mrs. Ellerslie 
 had been good enough to faint, too. 
 
 The two men each found it easier to be angry at 
 one another than to do anything else, for each nat- 
 urally had his hands full and this was all at the side 
 of the public highway. 
 
 "Damn it all !" said Dunn, as a beginning towards 
 getting out of difficulties. Then he looked up the 
 road to see if any one were coming and saw his wife 
 and Ellerslie just dawning over the top of the hill. 
 Bobby's head appeared the next instant, for Bobby 
 was with them. "Holy Moses!" he exclaimed in 
 agony, "there's her husband !" 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie no sooner heard that than she came 
 to instantly. "Oh, my two pins," she exclaimed, 
 "See if you can find them! They never could see 
 through these bushes! Have you got a flask, Will? 
 Lay Grace's head down and I 'II undo her collar. We 
 must n't lose a second." 
 
 The Good Samaritan would have stood no show at 
 all against Nellie Ellerslie in that minute. Grace had 
 really fainted, however, and was correspondingly 
 difficult to deal with. Seeing no other way to act 
 and being in truly desperate straits on account of
 
 THE INS AND THE OUTS 97 
 
 her own hair, Mrs. Ellerslie hastily unpinned the 
 girl's coronet braid and put it hi her pocket, thus 
 obtaining some hairpins with which to reconstruct 
 her coiffure. She was wonderfully clever at it and 
 looked just as usual in three seconds. Belden stood 
 dumb; he never had seen a coronet braid before, 
 and it and all the affair made more impression on him 
 a thousand times over than all the charms which 
 other women had ever flung in his face. It isn't 
 often that a man gets a chance to see clearly into the 
 reality within any of us, but if he does get the chance 
 and gets it in an evil minute, woe betide that woman. 
 It was while Mrs. Ellerslie was bestowing Grace's 
 crown of loveliness into her own pocket that Belden 
 first really and truly actually fell hi love with the girl. 
 
 But now the other two of the party joined them. 
 
 " What 's up ? " Ellerslie asked. " Is she asleep? " 
 
 "She saw a snake," said Mrs. Ellerslie, bending 
 down and pushing Grace's hair this way and that in 
 tender friendly desperation. "Oh, Lizzie, what shall 
 we do? She's really faulted, you know." 
 
 "And there's no water anywhere," said Mrs. Dunn, 
 falling on her knees. "Oh dear! Haven't any of 
 you a whiskey flask?" 
 
 The men looked vaguely at one another and then 
 at Bobby. 
 
 "I'll teU you," said Belden, "I'll run to the house 
 and get mine." He set off at once. 
 
 7
 
 98 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "You and Mr. Ellerslie go a little ways away 
 and wait, dear," said Mrs. Dunn to her husband. 
 "Oh dear, dear! She's not laced, do you think, 
 Nellie?" 
 
 "Laced! My dear, she's padded, if anything. 
 Isn't it terrible how she lies there? She doesn't 
 know a thing, does she? I'd be horribly afraid to 
 faint like that." 
 
 "She looks so strange, somehow," said Mrs. Dunn, 
 busily chafing the cold hands of the girl. "I can't 
 think what it is, but her head looks so queer to me, 
 somehow." 
 
 "It's her braid. It came loose, and I just managed 
 to get it into my pocket. I was so afraid the men 
 would see it." 
 
 "Did n't they see it? I'm glad." 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie put her hands up to her own hair 
 and carefully made sure that all was right. Then 
 she leaned forward and passed her fingers over 
 Grace's brow. 
 
 "She was awfully lucky to have such eyelashes 
 with that hair, wasn't she?" she murmured. 
 
 Meanwhile Dunn and Ellerslie stood out by the 
 road a little further down. 
 
 "Was there really any snake?" Ellerslie asked. 
 
 "I did n't see it." 
 
 " I thought you were all together." 
 
 "They were ahead."
 
 THE INS AND THE OUTS 99 
 
 "I'm surprised Nellie did n't faint, too. She never 
 lets a chance slip." 
 
 Dunn was silent. 
 
 "What a blamed fool a man is not to carry a flask 
 always ! " Ellerslie said next. Then he suddenly 
 interrupted himself: "By George, I've got one, after 
 all. I lost mine in Brixlegg, so I entirely forgot 
 that I had one with me to-day." He pulled out a 
 flask as he spoke, and hurried to the scene of the 
 catastrophe. 
 
 "Here's the flask," he said briskly, handing it to 
 his wife. 
 
 She took it. "Why, is Will back already?" she 
 asked in surprise, looking at the monogram thereon. 
 Ellerslie turned away without answering. Mrs. Dunn 
 seized the flask and poured a little of the contents 
 deftly down over the cheek and into the collar of the 
 prostrate girl. "She'll take cold and surely want a 
 fire in her room now," she thought, miserably 
 
 "What can we do with her?" Mrs. Ellerslie asked; 
 then she took the flask. "I wonder who gave Will 
 this flask. It wasn't you, was it?" 
 
 "I never gave a man a flask in my life," said Mrs. 
 Dunn. "I do wonder if we ought to unfasten her 
 anywhere." 
 
 " I don't see how we can ; everything hooks behind 
 this year, you know." 
 
 Bobby had approached, much interested. "Oh,
 
 100 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 Mamma," he said, "sit still; there's the prettiest 
 little black and yellow lizard looking out from under 
 the edge of your dress. Oh, he's so cunning!" 
 
 The sound that Mrs. Dunn made would have roused 
 the dead and of course roused the fainting. It 
 wasn't a shriek or a gasp or a groan; it sounded 
 more like a suffocated yell than anything else. 
 
 "Oh, Cousin Lizzie," Grace moaned feebly, "did 
 you burn yourself with the spirit lamp?" 
 
 They got home some way, and Grace had a chill 
 and required constant care at night. T 
 
 "I don't see what they ever asked that girl for," 
 Ellerslie said, irritably, to his wife as they were retir- 
 ing. " If it was n't for her and Belden this would be 
 bearable, but with them " ^ 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie was furious with Belden on account 
 of a look which he had given her a look of burning C 
 contempt bred out of Grace's coronet braid. 
 
 "I'll agree to anything you say about Will Belden , 
 to-night," she said, "I certainly have my opinion of 
 him." ^ 
 
 "What's he done to merit your disapproval?" 
 
 "Why, Frank, just between ourselves, can't you \ 
 see how perfectly despicable it is, the way he and 
 Lizzie are trying to play that girl into his hands? " 
 
 "Oh!" Ellerslie hadn't noticed that, evidently. 
 
 "Not but what it's truly noble in Lizzie to be
 
 THE INS AND THE OUTS 101 
 
 willing to give the only man who ever pays her 
 any attention up to any one. It's pitiable to see 
 her pleasure if he only talks with her five minutes; 
 that is, it would be pitiable if it was n't so funny. 
 Lizzie is so funny when she tries to be attractive. 
 I don't know anything funnier than a woman who 
 does n't know any other way to be attractive than 
 to put on a clean white collar." 
 
 "She's here in the country and so she dresses for 
 the country. I think she's all right." Ellerslie felt 
 chivalrous towards the woman who was planning to 
 dispose of Belden. 
 
 " Oh, of course, you do. Don't suppose for a minute 
 that I have n't eyes in my head." Such a stinging 
 little hum of a voice. 
 
 "What do you mean?" No chivalry now just 
 the plain marital trumpet-note. 
 
 "Nothing, of course." 
 
 Ellerslie came over, laid his hand heavily on his 
 wife's round white shoulder (she was half undressed 
 now), and turned her face roughly upward. "What do 
 you mean?" he said again, this time quite harshly. 
 
 She felt a little frightened, and whenever he fright- 
 ened her he regained his empire and she regained hers. 
 
 "You hurt," she said, shrinking back. "I don't 
 mean anything, Frank, truly, I don't." Then she 
 looked up and noted something very like stern anger 
 in his eyes. "Oh, I'm so tired of them all," she cried
 
 102 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 out, seizing the favorable hour for action, and, nestling 
 suddenly against him, she began to cry. 
 
 " Belden 's an ass ! " Ellerslie exclaimed, hi a fury 
 too real for him not to believe in himself. At the 
 same time he gathered his wife close in his arms. 
 
 " And I don't like Mr. Dunn either," 
 sobbed Mrs. Ellerslie ; " and that child 's such a nui- 
 sance. Oh, Frank-k ! " 
 
 "The woman who got this party up was a fool," 
 Ellerslie exclaimed, becoming a changed man at once. 
 "Just cry it all out, pet; I promise you I'll never 
 bring you into another such mess." 
 
 "No, don't," she whispered, "I've suffered so 
 much here. That awful tea, and you don't know 
 how cross you've been with me." 
 
 "Me! Cross with you! What an idea! Why, I 
 could n't be cross with you if I tried." 
 
 "Oh, Frank, couldn't you truly?" 
 
 "The very idea! Of course I could n't." 
 
 "Oh, look out, my hair's caught in your cuff- 
 button. Ow!" 
 
 "Did I hurt you, precious? I'm so sorry. Do for- 
 give me." 
 
 "You're such a dear, Frank. Tell me what you 
 think Lizzie and her husband are talking about right 
 now." She was comfortably nestled in his arms. 
 
 " I think she 's probably discussing lighting the 
 spirit lamp. It seems to be her chief end in We."
 
 THE INS AND THE OUTS 103 
 
 "I guess we're all getting pretty tired of that 
 spirit lamp. Look out, now your button 's caught in 
 the lace. I do wish you'd put on your dressing- 
 gown. There, now you've torn it." 
 
 "I'll buy you some more." 
 
 "Can we go to Brussels on our way to Paris?" 
 Mrs. Ellerslie's voice grew sweeter and sweeter. 
 
 "Anywhere you please." 
 
 The loving wife now folded her husband's head 
 neatly in her arms. " I do love you," she murmured. 
 
 Ellerslie was perfectly happy. He knew she told 
 the truth.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE NEXT MOENING 
 
 THE next morning the postman, having rapped long 
 and loudly on the door of the Ellerslies, finally left 
 the mail with Bobby. Thus a chain was started 
 which later developed the information that Ellerslie 
 and Mrs. Ellerslie had risen at six o'clock and started 
 for Salder. They had taken some coffee first and had 
 left word with the cook that their return dates were 
 uncertain. Mrs. Dunn went into their room and dis- 
 covered that they had not taken either night gear 
 or toilet things; in fact they had taken nothing 
 except Belden's Baedeker. 
 
 Grace Waters was too ill to care what anybody did 
 or took, but Dunn was really very angry. It seemed 
 to him that whoever else Mrs. Ellerslie fooled by go- 
 ing off betimes to Salder with her own husband, she 
 certainly owed him Dunn some foreword as to 
 her intentions. 
 
 " Perhaps they 've made it all up," said Mrs. Dunn, 
 brushing her hair out smoothly and doing it up in the 
 hard, unbecoming style affected by women who have 
 no other course open except to be good.
 
 THE NEXT MORNING 105 
 
 "Made it all up!" said Dunn, tartly. The words 
 made him angrier than he would allow to show. He 
 felt that Mrs. Ellerslie had done a most reprehensible 
 thing in going off to Salder at all. What did she want 
 to get off with her husband for, anyway! If she 
 wanted to go to Salder, why didn't she say so? 
 "Where is Salder?" he asked, testily. 
 
 "It's the first station on the way to Brunswick. 
 I don't just know where it is. Oh, I do hope that 
 they've made it up. What a nice time we could have 
 if they'd be agreeable ! " 
 
 "Don't backbite, Lizzie." It was plain to see that 
 Dunn had but little sympathy with the marital bliss 
 of the Ellerslies. 
 
 "I know, dear, I don't mean to. But it has been 
 hard. Will is so tired of them both." 
 
 " I was n't aware that this was Will Belden's party ; 
 since when, pray?" 
 
 "Hush, dear, some one's knocking. Oh, is it you, 
 Bobby? What do you want, dear?" 
 
 "Is my donkey-wagon come?" 
 
 "Oh, Bob, what did you get him that wagon for; 
 it was so unnecessary and it does n't come, anyway?" 
 
 " He wanted it, and I thought if one person here 
 could have what he wanted it was a pity not to get 
 it for him." 
 
 Dunn suppressed much innuendo in that phrase. 
 He wasn't having what he wanted, he knew that.
 
 It came to him what life might be if his wife were 
 the kind that Ellerslie or Belden would enjoy taking 
 to Salder. That's the kind of wife that a man can 
 be proud of and with whom he takes real comfort. 
 He and Mrs. Ellerslie [might have been in Broistedt 
 this very moment, were Mrs. Dunn but that kind 
 of woman. 
 
 "Mamma, when will my donkey-wagon come?" 
 Bobby was still at the door; now he came inside. 
 "When will it come, Mamma?" 
 
 "I don't know, dear. Nobody can tell when any- 
 thing will get here from Hildesheim. It takes a long 
 while. Did you address it 'in Brunswick' or 'by 
 Brunswick/ Bob; that makes such a difference." 
 
 "What difference does it make?" 
 
 "Why, 'in Brunswick' means in the city of Bruns- 
 wick, and 'by Brunswick' means out here in the 
 country." 
 
 Silence for a little. 
 
 "Do you think that it will come to-day, Mamma?" 
 Bobby asked. 
 
 "Nobody can tell, dear." 
 
 "Where is Salder, did you say?" Dunn asked 
 suddenly. 
 
 " It 's off that way. I don't see how Nellie can walk 
 that far." 
 
 "She walks all right." He got up and moved 
 restlessly about. "I guess I'll go out," he said.
 
 THE NEXT MORNING 107 
 
 "But not after them!" Mrs. Dunn possessed all 
 the tact of a more than ordinarily good woman. 
 "Oh, that wouldn't do at all. If they have made 
 up, they'll want just each other for days and days, 
 you know; they're so in love." 
 
 Dunn took his tongue between his teeth and left 
 the room at once. He was now too angry to speak. 
 
 Belden tapped awhile later; he was full of apolo- 
 gies but out of matches. Mrs. Dunn was trying to 
 order black darning-cotton in German script, while 
 Bobby swung on the back of her chair and wondered 
 audibly and without cessation when the delectable 
 donkey-wagon would come. 
 
 "Where's every one?" Belden asked, after Mrs. 
 Dunn had gone down on her knees and found the box 
 of matches under the bed. "All out walking?" 
 
 "Grace is ill, Bob just went into his room at 
 least, I think that's where he is, and the Ellerslies 
 have gone to Salder." 
 
 "To Salder!" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Together!" 
 
 " Yes, early this morning." 
 
 "How strange ! They must have made up then?" 
 
 "Yes," said Mrs. Dunn, wearily, "I guess so. Be 
 careful, Bobby, the chair may go over." 
 
 " When do you guess my donkey- wagon will come, 
 Mr. Belden?" said Bobby.
 
 "I don't know, Bobby. Is Miss Waters very ill?" 
 
 "She took cold from fainting; it isn't anything 
 really serious. Do be careful, Bobby." 
 
 "That's what" I want to speak to you about. I 
 had my eyes opened yesterday." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn laid down her pen and looked at him 
 in fright. " Why, what did Grace do ? " 
 
 "She didn't do anything. Run in my room, 
 Bobby, and get the box of matches. Be sure there 
 are matches in the box; there are a lot of empty 
 boxes around." 
 
 "But I just gave you a box of matches," said Mrs. 
 Dunn. 
 
 Belden gave her an expressive look. 
 
 "Oh well run along, dear," she said, standing 
 corrected. 
 
 "But if he's got one box of matches, what does he 
 want any more for?" Bobby asked. 
 
 "I don't want any more," said Belden, laughing 
 in spite of himself; "I say, let's go out to walk." 
 
 "Very well," said Mrs. Dunn, pleased at being so 
 briefly forgiven. " I wonder if Bob would like to go ! " 
 
 "We can ask him," said Belden, rising. 
 
 "Oh, I'll tell you where we can go," Mrs. Dunn 
 exclaimed, a sudden beam of enthusiasm kindling her 
 voice; "we can explore the castle. You haven't 
 really seen it yet, you know." 
 
 "Oh, yes," cried Bobby, " I want to see the castle.
 
 THE NEXT MORNING 109 
 
 I went up there with Papa and we did n't see anything 
 to see only a tower with a wooden top. And Papa 
 wanted to go up it, but Mrs. Ellerslie said to wait 
 till there was a moon, and it was locked, anyway." 
 
 "Well, come on," said Belden, "for the castle." 
 
 "I'll just run to Grace a minute and then I'll be 
 ready," said Mrs. Dunn, ranning forthwith. 
 
 "Well, young man," said Belden to Bobby, "you 
 and I can go on down-stairs, I reckon." 
 
 "I'll get my Alpenstock," said Bobby. "Cousin 
 Grace gave me her Alpenstock. She bought one 
 because she thought it was going to be high and 
 pretty here." 
 
 "It was nice of her to give it to you, was n't it?" 
 said Belden, following him into the hall. 
 
 " Oh, Mamma gave her back the Mark she paid for 
 it," said Bobby. "Mamma says she always gives 
 everybody back their Marks, and nobody ever gives 
 her back her Marks." 
 
 "Mamma is very generous," said Belden, vaguely 
 uncomfortable over the matches in his pocket. 
 
 " Yes, Papa does n't like it very much," said Bobby, 
 diving into his room and reappearing immediately 
 with the Alpenstock. "I'm ready now." 
 
 They went down-stairs, but did not find Dunn 
 anywhere ; so they went out in the court where the 
 forester's dog and the doctor's dog and the poodle 
 belonging to the Gasthof were all strolling about.
 
 110 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "I wish I had a dog," said Bobby, "not like these, 
 you know, a nice one." 
 
 Belden's eyes wandered idly over the array of 
 tables, chairs, and benches, and then back to the 
 house. 
 
 "I wonder what keeps your Mamma so long," he 
 said. " I hope Miss Waters is not worse." 
 
 "It isn't that; it's that she talks so long," said 
 Bobby, "Mamma can't get away. She doesn't like 
 to be rude and she can't get away. Papa said she'd 
 learn to just walk off after a while." 
 
 Belden looked at the little slit of view that showed 
 between the trees and was silent. 
 
 After a liberal while Mrs. Dunn came bustling 
 down, all smiles. " Grace is so much better," she said ; 
 " she wanted my tea-things, so she could make herself 
 some tea. I filled her spirit lamp for her and fixed 
 everything. She is really ever so much better." 
 
 "That's nice," said Belden, and then they all set 
 off at once. 
 
 Mrs. Dunn told the truth when she said that the 
 woods began just back of the house. Schloss Dichten- 
 berg crowned the first eminence rising out of the plain 
 of North Germany in that direction. Once a break 
 was made in the monotony, eminences continued to 
 rise until the Harz Mountains resulted further on. 
 
 They crossed the road. 
 
 "Isn't the view beautiful?" cried Mrs. Dunn.
 
 THE NEXT MORNING 111 
 
 u Oh, I do wish that Bobby would n't run after those 
 ducks. It always seems so sort of inconvenient for 
 ducks to hurry. Come here, dear," she called. 
 
 " He is n't going to hurt them," said Belden. 
 
 "I know, but they see the Alpenstock and it 
 frightens them. Bobby, do you hear Mamma?" 
 
 "We'll go on and he'll come right along." 
 
 "I know he's going to run one of those ducks 
 down. He ought never to stay indoors so long at a 
 time. It makes him so so active." 
 
 "Let's go on up." 
 
 "Bobby! Bobby!" 
 
 "When he faces this way he'll see us. We'll go 
 slow." 
 
 " I suppose I am foolish, but the Alpenstock makes 
 me so nervous. Of course I know it's six feet long, 
 but if he should get the end in his eye !" 
 
 "Come on," said Belden. 
 
 They started slowly up the winding path. 
 
 "Oh, by George!" the man exclaimed, "I forgot 
 my stick." 
 
 "Must you have it?" 
 
 " I don't like to go in the woods without it." 
 
 "Well, hurry. There'll be no morning at all left 
 if we don't get up there soon, you know." 
 
 Belden hurried. 
 
 Bobby came panting to rejoin his mother now. 
 
 "I'm going to play this is a spear and pitch it,"
 
 112 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 he said. Then he hurled the Alpenstock up into the 
 trees. His mother screamed. "It may come right 
 down on our heads; oh, Bobby, what makes you do 
 such things?" 
 
 But the Alpenstock did n't come down. It stayed 
 up, and it was all of three minutes before they could 
 see where it had stuck. 
 
 "Now you've lost it," said the mother, reproach 
 and content mingling in her tone. 
 
 "No, I haven't," said Bobby, and proceeded to 
 throw stones with great vigor. 
 
 When Belden came back he shook the tree, the 
 Alpenstock came clattering down, and they went on 
 up to the castle. 
 
 "This side used to be sturmfrei," said Mrs. Dunn, 
 panting a little ; "that means nobody could get up 
 it. I can't just see why not." 
 
 "This whole hillside has probably been formed 
 since," said Belden; "rubbish from the walls, and 
 so on, you know." 
 
 "It was Mansfeld that blew it up; I don't know 
 just when. It had been a ruin for ever so long in 1650. 
 But you were going to tell me something about your 
 getting your eyes opened." 
 
 "Yes, but I've had no chance yet." 
 
 "Oh, there was all that long while when he was 
 chasing the ducks and now he's climbing. Go on, 
 tell me; what was it?"
 
 THE NEXT MORNING 113 
 
 "It was Nellie Ellerslie, and of all " 
 
 "Bobby, see the squirrel ! Yes, well, what did she 
 do?" 
 
 "It was that business hi the woods yesterday 
 when your niece fainted." 
 
 "She is n't my niece, Will; she's my cousin." 
 
 "Yes, I know. She faulted, you know; you saw 
 her, and just as she faulted your husband and Nellie 
 came up. Well, I was trying to hold the girl up, but 
 they seemed to think I ought to lay her down, so I 
 laid her down. Nellie asked how it happened, and 
 when I said a snake Nellie made a scene and just 
 then you and Ellerslie came over the hill." 
 
 "Do look at Bobby, sitting on that pole! Isn't 
 he a picture? Yes, and so we came along ?" 
 
 "Well, Nellie was hi a bad fix because her hair was 
 down, and she didn't want Frank to see that she 
 had it down " 
 
 Mrs. Dunn stopped short. "Her hair was down! 
 What did she have her hair down for?" 
 
 "I don't know; I guess the phis came out. You 
 know she always has it so it comes down easy. Any- 
 way, it was down." 
 
 "Was she out walking with you all with her hair 
 down?" 
 
 "She wasn't out walking with us; they just 
 came up when Grace I mean Miss Waters 
 fainted."
 
 114 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "Was she out walking with my husband with her 
 hair down?" 
 
 "I don't know. I don't remember. I only know 
 her hair was down, and when she saw Ellerslie she 
 wanted it up, and " 
 
 Bobby came running. "Oh, Mamma, I see a 
 train. Do you suppose it's got my donkey-cart?" 
 
 "Run quick and maybe you can see them unload 
 your cart if it's there." Bobby tore off. "Go on, 
 Will." 
 
 "Well, you know the girl was in a dead faint; 
 you saw her?" 
 
 "Yes, yes, I know ! Go on." 
 
 "Well, Nellie unpinned the top of her hair and 
 took the phis and did up her own hair." 
 
 "She didn't unpin her curls; surely not, oh, 
 surely not?" 
 
 "She took the top that top that thing on 
 top, you know." 
 
 "Coronet braid, they call it. Well, that's bad 
 enough, goodness knows. And Nellie deliberately 
 unpinned it, before you, too. How funny; she just 
 did that because Grace is a girl and she's married. 
 How mean!" 
 
 "Mean" (tone most expressive), "and Dunn was 
 there, too, you know." 
 
 "She wasn't thinking of him, he's married. But 
 I think it was just as horrid hi her to be walking with
 
 THE NEXT MORNING 115 
 
 her hair down. Between ourselves, I never could see 
 what made men so crazy about her, but it's just that 
 sort of thing they like, I guess. Imagine me out 
 walking with Frank Ellerslie with my hair down ! " 
 
 Mrs. Dunn's face and tone were equal in horror. 
 No, it was quite impossible to imagine her out walk- 
 ing with any one with her hair down, Belden felt 
 that. "Goon, Will." 
 
 "Oh, I've no more to say. That's all." 
 
 They came to the top of the hill just here. More 
 tables, chairs, and benches, another red brick Gasthof. 
 
 "Where's the Schloss?" asked Bobby, who was 
 standing warder with his Alpenstock. 
 
 "It's further on; come, dear." 
 
 They followed the road around to where a square 
 tower projected 1 out into their way. 
 
 "That's the Burgverliess," said Mrs. Dunn; "that 
 means the dungeons. Only think, they found skele- 
 tons chained up in there." 
 
 "What did they chain them up for? " asked Bobby, 
 with deep interest; "did they want to run away?" 
 
 "The tower goes away down in the earth," said 
 Mrs. Dunn, "I don't just know how deep. There's a 
 trap-door, but the key 's down at the Domane. Those 
 are buttresses further on. You don't suppose that 
 every time they go to walk Nellie takes her hair 
 down, do you?" 
 
 "What are buttresses, Mamma?" Bobby asked.
 
 116 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "Do keep that Alpenstock out of my way, dear, 
 I nearly fell over it then. You don't suppose that 
 she does, do you?" 
 
 "No, indeed. It was just an accident. But fancy 
 her unpinning that girl's hair that way." 
 
 "I know, it's awful!" 
 
 "What's awful, Mamma?" asked Bobby. 
 
 The road wound prettily around the corner of the 
 old ruin. They went around with the road 
 
 "They dug all this out, you know," said Mrs. Dunn ; 
 "it was all covered with earth. It cost ever so much. 
 There was nothing but just a hill here with some 
 ruins of the tower." 
 
 "What did they dig it out for?" asked Bobby. 
 
 "Nobody knows how old the castle is. It's first 
 mentioned in the time of Barbarossa, 1180, 1 believe." 
 
 "Eleven-eighty what, Mamma?" asked Bobby. 
 "What's a Barbarossa?" 
 
 " He was a German king, a Kaiser like the one they 
 have now," said Mrs. Dunn. " See, dear, is n't that a 
 big tree?" 
 
 "It's stone inside," said Bobby, climbing up 
 between the trunks and prodding the roots with his 
 Alpenstock; "it's all stone inside." 
 
 "Let me take the Alpenstock," said Belden, prod- 
 ding in his turn; "it's a fact, it is full of stone. 
 Was there a wall here, do you think?" 
 
 "I knew you'd be interested," said Mrs. Dunn,
 
 THE NEXT MORNING 117 
 
 fairly beaming over having evoked a sympathetic 
 attitude in him in the end. " You '11 soon feel just 
 as I do about it. It's such a nice, agreeable ruin. 
 Such grand places to dig, and all the earth rolls right 
 down-hill. You must come up and help me dig 
 often." 
 
 "Where's my stick?" saidBelden. "Oh, Bobby's 
 got it." 
 
 "That's where the gate was," said Mrs. Dunn. 
 "Come this way, Bobby dear; don't run down 
 there." 
 
 "Do you know this is mighty quiet and peaceful," 
 said Belden, poking here and there with the Alpen- 
 stock. "I'm glad they went to Salder. It leaves 
 Dichtenberg in such Ruhe, as the Germans say." 
 
 "I don't think Nellie 's quite well," said Mrs. Dunn, 
 charitably; "she'd never take another girl's hair- 
 pins that way if she felt like herself." 
 
 The Burgfried rose up at their left, six-sided and 
 high with a hideous Aussichtsturm going on two 
 staircases higher yet. 
 
 "What's that, Mamma?" Bobby asked. 
 
 "That was the watch-tower, dear; they used to 
 look down from there, and when they saw a lot of 
 mules all laden with stuff to sell coming along from 
 Goslar to Brunswick they used to sweep down from 
 here and take them all captive, steal the mules and 
 the stuff they carried, and stick the poor men who
 
 118 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 were with them down in that tower we saw until 
 their relatives paid to get them out." 
 
 "Oh, what fun!" said Bobby. "I wish I'd lived 
 then." 
 
 " Why, Bobby, you don't wish any such thing. Be 
 careful, that's Mr. Belden's cane." 
 
 "The tower looks awfully new to me," said Belden; 
 "do you suppose Barbarossa ever went up it?" 
 
 "It's perfectly new. It's only been built a few 
 years. Maybe Barbarossa went up the old one. He 
 besieged this castle and took it. That's its first 
 appearance in history. They think that Henry the 
 Fowler may have built it when he built Regenstein. 
 Do you know, Will, if you " 
 
 "I wonder how long her cold will lay Miss Waters 
 up." Belden was looking at the view. "She won't 
 get any good at all out of being in the country if she 's 
 always in bed, you know." 
 
 "Of course not. I quite agree with you there. 
 What we see here was all dug out, you know; that 
 was the Herrenhaus down there." 
 
 "What a big hen-house!" said Bobby. 
 
 "Her-ren-haus," said his mother, distinctly. 
 
 "Is n't it beautiful? Who did you say lived 
 here?" 
 
 ' Why, of course, lots of people lived here. Otto IV. 
 kept his Christmas here once." 
 
 "Who was he?"
 
 THE NEXT MORNING 119 
 
 "He was the son of My goodness! where 's 
 that child gone?" 
 
 "Oh, he's all right. Whose son did you say he 
 was?" 
 
 "Will, we must hunt that child right up. Ruins 
 are never safe. Oh, there he is ! " 
 
 Bobby was standing in what was left of the door 
 of the Burgverliess. 
 
 "Mamma, there's a place here where I can look 
 down and there's a room underneath." 
 
 "That's the trap-door I told you about. Take 
 care, Bobby, we're coming as fast as we can." 
 
 Belden helped the lady down the ruins of a stone 
 stair, and together they crossed the Great Hall. The 
 Burgverliess opened off of it doubtless so that the 
 starving going on in the dungeons below might give 
 extra zest to the feasts there served. The restorers 
 had laid a new cement floor in the upper story of the 
 tower, and in its center a wooden door was clamped 
 down and locked with a rusty lock. 
 
 Mrs. Dunn crossed the floor and leaned on the wall 
 opposite, looking out at the view. Belden got down 
 on his knees and looked at the lock. 
 
 "I wonder which is Wolfenbuttel," she said, sweep- 
 ing the plain with her eyes. 
 
 "I bet I can open it with the button-hook in my 
 knife," said Belden. 
 
 Mrs. Dunn was very quiet, gazing over the wide
 
 expanse of field and farm, village and tree-bordered 
 road ; she loved beauty in any form except that 
 embodied in Nellie Ellerslie's hair. 
 
 "Oh, Mamma, he's got it opened!" cried Bobby, 
 three feet from her ear. She turned and shrank 
 back. 
 
 " Oh ! Oh, be careful ! Bobby, please be careful." 
 
 "I'm holding his leg," said Belden. He and Bobby 
 were lying flat on their faces, looking into the dark 
 room below. 
 
 Mrs. Dunn got down on all fours and looked in, 
 too. 
 
 " Fancy putting men down there ! " she said, shud- 
 dering. 
 
 "I'm beginning to see a little in the dark," Bobby 
 exclaimed, delightedly. 
 
 "See, there's a hole into the next room below," 
 said Belden. "The stair must have gone there." 
 
 "Do be careful of Bobby," pleaded the mother. 
 
 "I'm holding him; there can't anything happen," 
 said Belden ; but just as he spoke Fate gave him the 
 lie, for Bobby let something fall into the hole. 
 
 "My goodness me, what was that!" Mrs. Dunn 
 exclaimed. " Something fell in ! " 
 
 "It was Mr. Belden's cane," said Bobby, not just 
 knowing what to do, but turning deep red at a venture. 
 
 "Oh, no!" cried Belden; "not my cane, surely !" 
 
 "Yes, it was."
 
 THE NEXT MORNING 121 
 
 Belden was a very sweet-tempered man; he drew 
 back and shut the cover down sharply. "It's for- 
 bidden to open it," he said, "I ought to have known 
 better." Then he jumped to his feet. 
 
 Bobby was quite crestfallen for him. 
 
 "Was it was it any cane hi particular?" Mrs. 
 Dunn queried, greatly distressed. 
 
 " It does n't matter. It belonged to my grand- 
 father, but it does n't matter." 
 
 They walked away, Bobby trailing the Alpenstock 
 in a meek and dejected manner. The air of the whole 
 party was as altered as if Barbarossa had suddenly 
 returned and conquered all over again. 
 
 "I hope they'll be back from Salder for dinner," 
 Mrs. Dunn hazarded, looking sideways at the cane- 
 bereft. She was very sorry for what had occurred, 
 but thought that it was Belden who was silly now. 
 
 Belden said nothing. 
 
 They passed the Gasthof and started down the path. 
 Bobby was the first to become his usual self again. 
 
 "Oh, Mamma," he said, "do you suppose my 
 donkey-cart has come now 1 ?"
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 WHEN WOMEN COMBINE 
 
 MRS. DUNN was much hurt over Belden's attitude in 
 regard to the cane. She felt that he should have 
 balanced the cane against her constant supply of 
 spirit lamp, matches, and good temper, and let it go 
 at that. But Belden was weary of being the only 
 man who did n't need to be carefully considered, and 
 so he allowed himself to look upon his cane as a very 
 personal thing. 
 
 The Ellerslies took dinner hi Salder and got back 
 to Dichtenberg about three o'clock. They came 
 up-stairs with that overdone attitude of innocence 
 which people who should have said what they meant 
 to do always assume towards those whom they 
 should have told. 
 
 "Lizzie! Where are you, Lizzie?" Mrs. Ellerslie 
 cried in sweet, clear tones, as she walked along the 
 hall, and Mrs. Dunn, still hurt over the cane, felt 
 that, after all, only a woman could sympathize with 
 a woman. 
 
 "I'm in here," she called back from Bobby's 
 room.
 
 WHEN WOMEN COMBINE 123 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie opened the door. "Well, dear!" 
 She walked in and seated herself on the side of the 
 bed. "Whatever we have or haven't done, we've 
 been to Salder, and I could scream I 'm so tired. It 's 
 an awful ways." 
 
 "Was it pretty?" Mrs. Dunn's tone was slightly 
 non-committal. 
 
 "Not very, but it straightened Frank out and 
 that's all I cared about. We bought some postals 
 and saw the old house, or Burg, or whatever they 
 call it. The woman that sold us the cards said 
 that one of the Von Salders was there a little 
 while ago. He bought some cards. They don't 
 own even their old castle any more. Oh, me," Mrs. 
 Ellerslie yawned, wearily, "it's a long walk, but I 
 rather like old places. I like Hildesheim. That dear 
 old Rathaus!" 
 
 "You'd better take Will Belden and go to Bruns- 
 wick next." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "WTiy, you went to Hildesheim with my husband, 
 and now you've been to Salder with yours; it ought 
 to be Will's turn next." 
 
 "Why do you say that?" Mrs. Ellerslie's tone 
 sharpened a little, and she was ready to be angry; 
 but then she thought better of it and laughed. " Oh, 
 Lizzie, aren't men nuisances? I declare, when I 
 think what a nice time you and I and Bobby, of
 
 124 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 course could have here if there were only no 
 men." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn was dying to go for Will Belden, and 
 now she saw her chance. "I fancy we 'd be rather 
 lonesome without our husbands, dear," she said, " but, 
 just between ourselves, I certainly do wish we had n't 
 asked Will Belden. He 's got such a bad temper. 
 We went out to walk this morning, and nothing must 
 do but he must have Bobby's Alpenstock and Bobby 
 carry his cane, and then, when we were looking down 
 the hole into the dungeons up there in the castle, 
 the child let the cane fall in, and, well, you ought 
 to have seen Will ; I thought he 'd eat the boy up 
 alive!" 
 
 "Oh, you can't tell me anything new about Will 
 Belden's temper," said Mrs. Ellerslie, not a whit 
 averse to going for any one, just as a set-off against 
 the virtue displayed by walking to Salder with a mere 
 husband. "I never would have suggested him, only 
 you were in such desperate straits for a single man. I 
 know fifty men who would have given anything to 
 come here, but they 're not the sort to be picked up 
 on three days' notice. When you 're in a hurry you 
 have to take anything, even Will Belden." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn felt vaguely distressed over the way 
 that Nellie always got the better of her. "She 
 really is awfully bright," she confessed to herself, 
 "she 's ever so much brighter than I am." Then she
 
 WHEN WOMEN COMBINE 125 
 
 added aloud: " He said that the cane had belonged 
 to his grandfather, and it had Goslar on the handle 
 as plain as day." 
 
 "Isn't that just like a man?" Mrs. Ellerslie was 
 smoothing out her gloves. "My dear, I wonder if 
 there's any lie that a man won't tell if he thinks it 
 will make a woman uncomfortable? Is n't there any 
 way that we can fish that cane up and make him 
 wish he'd never been born? Couldn't we lower 
 Bobby into the hole?" 
 
 "Lower Bobby! Nellie, it's the place where they 
 found the skeletons. It's the castle dungeon!" 
 
 "I would n't care, Lizzie; I'd get that cane some- 
 how, just for the fun of seeing Will Belden's face. 
 You could hand it back to him and say how surprised 
 you were that his grandfather had ever been in 
 Goslar." 
 
 "Perhaps the man up at the Gasthof there would 
 go down for it. He lives there, so he must have 
 plenty of time." Mrs. Dunn meant no reflection on 
 the rush of business which surged madly around the 
 upper Gasthof; she was only thinking of Will Belden's 
 prospective discomfiture. 
 
 "Well, dear?" Mrs. Ellerslie was evidently impa- 
 tient to go cane hunting at once. 
 
 "We might go up and ask him right after 
 tea." 
 
 "Oh, my dear, let's go up right now. Frank
 
 126 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 intends to go to sleep, and your husband 's in a 
 temper, and " 
 
 "My husband in a temper!" Mrs. Dunn opened 
 her eyes in great surprise. "How do you know?" 
 
 "My dear, how could I help knowing? We met 
 in the lower hall, and if I'd been his wife he 
 couldn't have looked madder over my going to 
 Salder. I suppose he thought that because I went 
 to Hildesheim with him I could n't go any place 
 now without him." 
 
 "I don't see why he should mind." 
 
 "I don't either, dear, but he seemed to mind; he 
 seemed to mind very much. Oh, men are queer, and 
 there seems to be something about me that makes 
 them even queerer than usual. But come, let's go 
 up to the castle and see if we can't get that stick 
 out somehow. And then, too, we '11 have such a nice 
 little time together. I declare, I'm absolutely lone- 
 some to be alone with you; you know that as well 
 as I do." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn appeared acquiescent. " But I must go 
 and see how Grace feels first," she stipulated. 
 
 *"0h, of course. And I'll change my shoes; these 
 are so dusty from Salder." 
 
 "You'll spoil another pair up at the castle." 
 
 "Never mind; I must be decent." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn, who had big feet and wore shoes most 
 vastly comfortable, took this almost as warmly unto
 
 WHEN WOMEN COMBINE 127 
 
 herself as she had taken Belden's grandfather's 
 Goslar cane. " I do wonder if I am getting sensitive," 
 she thought, frightened to death for fear of so getting. 
 Then she went to Grace, whom she found sitting up 
 in bed, playing cribbage with Bobby. The young 
 girl's soft yellow hair made a sort of hazy glow around 
 her face ; it was a sweet face. 
 
 "Oh, Mamma, has my donkey-wagon come?" 
 cried Bobby, with a leap that upset the cribbage 
 board. 
 
 "No, dear; oh, see what you've done! Pick them 
 all up now. Grace dear, Nellie and I are going out 
 for a little walk." 
 
 "Oh, have I got to go?" wailed Bobby. 
 
 "No, dear, no; you can stay right here. We're 
 just going out till tea-time." 
 
 " He can stay with me till I have to begin to dress," 
 said Grace. 
 
 "We sha'n't be gone long," said Mrs. Dunn. "I 
 have to be back promptly to boil the water for tea, 
 you know." 
 
 She went out hi the hall and found Mrs. Ellerslie 
 waiting. Together they went down and out, and as 
 soon as they were where they could do it they wound 
 their arms fondly about one another. 
 
 "Isn't it nice to be alone together?" said Mrs. 
 Ellerslie, squeezing her dear friend hard. "Oh, I 
 forgot to ask how Grace is. Better?"
 
 128 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "Yes, she's going to get up for tea." 
 
 " Really? I'm so glad. You know, I went in and 
 sat with her a while the other night and cheered her 
 quite a bit." 
 
 "Yes, she told me how kind you were to her." 
 
 "Kind! My dear, it was nothing. I love to do 
 anything I can for anybody in this world; but, 
 Lizzie, between ourselves, did you ever see any one 
 with so little hair as that girl has got? Why, my 
 dear, I don't believe she has well, I would n't say 
 that she has a bit more than you've got, and think of 
 the difference in your ages." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn looked up at the sky. No, she vowed 
 she wouldn't grow sensitive. Sensitive people are 
 so hard to get on with, and Mrs. Dunn knew too 
 much of the difficulties of getting on with people to 
 ever be willing to swell the quota of those who have 
 to be gotten on with. 
 
 "Isn't it a lovely day?" Mrs. Ellerslie continued. 
 "I love these sort of days, even if they do make me 
 crazy to be almost anywhere but here." 
 
 "It's so nice not to have Bobby to look out for, 
 for a few minutes," said Mrs. Dunn, resolute as to 
 keeping on pleasant ground. " What do you suppose 
 ever possessed Bob to bring him when we had him 
 so nicely settled in Hanover?" she said the next 
 second, quite forgetting her good intention. 
 
 "Don't ask me, my dear. I don't know why men
 
 WHEN WOMEN COMBINE 129 
 
 ever do anything that they do. I only know that if 
 I had a child settled in a school, the earth might turn 
 upside down and I'd never take him out. I should 
 think that you 'd go stark raving crazy." 
 
 "Well, of course he is my child, so he doesn't 
 bother me as he does you. But he is a care. I don't 
 know, though, that he is as much trouble as Frank 
 is. Seems to me Frank gets worse and worse. Is he 
 always as cross now as he's been here this week?" 
 
 "Oh, my dear, this week is nothing to sometimes. 
 Do you know, confidentially, when we 're where there 
 are good-looking men what I call real men 
 Frank is a perfect devil. But that is n't saying that 
 he didn't drive me half mad yesterday over your 
 husband." 
 
 " Over my husband ! " 
 
 "Yes, only fancy, over your husband! I really 
 almost took it as an insult. But sometimes it seems 
 to me that there doesn't live the man that Frank 
 can't be jealous about." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn walked a little more slowly. She always 
 lost her breath going up-hill, but now she was busy 
 wondering if she wasn't actually sensitive for good 
 and ever. " But perhaps she does n't mean it," she 
 said, "or perhaps she thinks I'm not bright enough 
 to see what she does mean." Neither view gave her 
 much comfort. 
 
 They had reached the top of the climb by this 
 9
 
 130 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 time, and now set to work to hunt up the man 
 who kept the Gasthof. They found him soon, 
 standing looking at the view. 
 
 But he had no ladder. Or rather he had two lad- 
 ders, one too short and the other too long. He mani- 
 fested a singular lack of initiative as to the whole 
 undertaking. 
 
 "Perhaps you think the floor would break?" sug- 
 gested Mrs. Dunn. 
 
 After he gathered what she was trying to say in 
 German, he answered that he thought nothing of the 
 sort, that the floor was strong as strong could be. 
 The staircase had rotted and fallen in, but the floor 
 was as strong as ever. 
 
 "And they really found fifteen skeletons down 
 there," said Mrs. Ellerslie. "Oh dear, just to think 
 how they must have felt !" 
 
 The Wirt made no answer to this sprightly obser- 
 vation, and the lady decided that he must have 
 been drinking. It was her way of settling all ques- 
 tions involving masculine mysteries. They left him 
 there and walked on up to the scene of the morn- 
 ing's accident. 
 
 "It must have all looked so different in those old 
 times," said Mrs. Dunn, walking slowly and racking 
 her brains to think where she had lately seen an un- 
 occupied ladder. "To think that Barbarossa must 
 have ridden through this very gate !"
 
 WHEN WOMEN COMBINE 131 
 
 "Was this a gate?" said Mrs. Ellerslie. "How 
 can any one tell anything about these old places?" 
 
 "The man who wrote the book looked it all up in 
 the library at Wolfenbuttel. It 's really quite a story. 
 There, I know where I've seen a ladder now 
 down by the place where I dig. There's one lying 
 alone behind that old barn or I guess it 's a new 
 barn; it looks new." 
 
 "Oh, let's get it and then go down in the hole our- 
 selves," exclaimed Mrs. Ellerslie ; " that will be such 
 an adventure ! " 
 
 "Would you dare?" 
 
 " Dare ! I 'd dare anything just to see Will Belden's 
 face when you hand him back the cane." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn hesitated. She was not herself altogether 
 adamant as to wanting to see Will Belden's face when 
 she handed him back the cane. "Well, we'll see if 
 it 's too heavy for us to manage," she said. 
 
 They went back out of the ruined gate and down 
 around behind to where Mrs. Dunn was wont to dig. 
 At the time that the good people of Dichtenberg took 
 hold and uncovered the ancient stronghold that had 
 once menaced them directly or indirectly day and 
 night for centuries, they merely made a small ditch 
 around the whole outside of the outer wall, just 
 revealing the fact that there had been a wall there, 
 but nothing further. Mrs. Dunn, with true anti- 
 quarian zeal and splendid feminine vigor, had under-
 
 132 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 taken to deepen the ditch in one place, but she had 
 not deepened it much. No matter how easy it is to 
 scratch earth down hill, the fact remains that the 
 deeper into the hill you dig the further you have got 
 to scratch the earth, and the ratio of the scratch to 
 the dig increases alarmingly. Mrs. Dunn had not 
 dug much lately; that was how she had had time to 
 notice the ladder. 
 
 They found it just where she had remembered seeing 
 it. It lay lengthwise along back of the red-brick 
 barn. Mrs. Ellerslie took up one end, and Mrs. Dunn 
 took up the other. It was not heavy, and they walked 
 off to the castle, bearing it between them. 
 
 "Isn't this fun?" Mrs. Ellerslie exclaimed, 
 enthusiastically. 
 
 Mrs. Dunn smiled. It was a beautiful day, and the 
 situation filled her with a rare, bubblingly joyful 
 excitement. 
 
 They had some difficulty getting the ladder down 
 into the Herrenhaus, as it did not occur to either to 
 just let it slide. Then they laid it on the ground and 
 went into the "Burgverliess. 
 
 "Will pried this up, and so I guess I can," said Mrs. 
 Dunn, dropping on her knees, and with the aid of 
 two hairpins she finally got the trap-door open. 
 
 "Oh, doesn't it look dangerous!" said Mrs. 
 Ellerslie, peering in. " Dear me, I don't know whether 
 I dare go down there. Think of the skeletons!"
 
 WHEN WOMEN COMBINE 133 
 
 But Mrs. Dunn's blood was now up. "Come on 
 and help me with the ladder," she said, resolutely. 
 
 They brought the ladder and they stuck its bigger 
 end into the hole. It slid slowly down, and after 
 a brief period of acute anxiety they felt it bring 
 up solid on the floor beneath. About two feet 
 stuck out into the glorious sunlight of the world 
 of life. 
 
 "Are you really going down?" Mrs. Ellerslie asked, 
 seeming to have turned the responsibility of the whole 
 expedition over to her friend by this time. "Oh, 
 Lizzie, do you dare?" 
 
 "Of course I dare," said Mrs. Dunn, trying the 
 ladder with one or two pushes. "You don't need to 
 come, but I 'm going down to get that cane." 
 
 She folded her skirts closely around her and stepped 
 on to the ladder. Then she began to descend slowly 
 backward, one step at a time. 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie watched her, at first with an odd, 
 gasping sensation, then, after a minute or two, as she 
 saw how plain and practical it all looked, with feel- 
 ings of vaguely determined emulation. 
 
 "Am I almost down?" Mrs. Dunn called. "I 
 can't see a thing yet, you know." 
 
 Her voice came up with a sad, sighing sort of 
 hollow reverberation. 
 
 " I can't see anything, either," Mrs. Ellerslie called 
 back. "Oh, Lizzie, how does it seem? Are there
 
 134 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 any more skeletons ? Does it make you feel 
 blue?" 
 
 "It's horribly cold and damp," Mrs. Dunn replied. 
 " I ought to have matches, too. Don't go away, 
 Nellie. Oh, now I'm beginning to see a little. Oh, 
 it's so strange!" 
 
 "What's strange? Is there anything to see? Can 
 you see the cane? " 
 
 "I don't know what it is, but it's so strange. To 
 think of where I am, you know. Oh, I can see ever 
 so much now! Oh, it's so strange!" 
 
 "What's strange? I'm coming, too; are you off 
 the ladder? I'm coming down." 
 
 "I'm here in the corner. Yes, come on; it's per- 
 fectly safe as long as we stand still." 
 
 "Do you see the cane anywhere?" Mrs. Ellerslie 
 was getting on the ladder now. "Isn't this an ad- 
 venture ? Won't the men be wild when we tell them ? " 
 She was backing down all the time. 
 
 "I wonder how many stories there are underneath? 
 Isn't exploring fun?" Mrs. Dunn was viewing her 
 friend's progress with interest. "Perhaps we can get 
 another ladder and go through them all." 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie stepped off on to the floor. " Ugh, 
 is n't it slimy and dirty and horrid?" 
 
 "Yes; doesn't it give you sensations, though?" 
 
 "But such horrid sensations. Think of being 
 stuck in here for long. Five minutes will be plenty
 
 WHEN WOMEN COMBINE 135 
 
 for me. Oh, see the water stains! I never knew 
 before what it really meant to rot in a dungeon." 
 
 "And the men brought to a castle like this were 
 generally peaceful merchants or their men, held for 
 ransom. The robbers and so forth were always 
 carried to towns and tried and hung." 
 
 "I'd rather be hung than stay here long. Where's 
 the cane? Let's get it and go right up again." 
 
 The cane was lying near the opening into the floor 
 below. 
 
 "I can't walk over there; it's too slippery," said 
 Mrs. Dunn. "I'll just creep." 
 
 "Oh, you'll get your dress so filthy dirty." 
 
 "Yes, I know. But I don't dare walk." 
 
 "Hold to the ladder." 
 
 "Yes, I can do that." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn put her hand on the ladder and reached 
 out for the cane. 
 
 There was a good deal about the ladder which 
 neither woman knew. For one thing, although it 
 had brought up solidly enough against the wall, it's 
 purchase on the slimy floor was anything but secure. 
 It had held against the straight downward push, but 
 it had no resistance to put forth when the pressure 
 came from the side. As Mrs. Dunn touched it, she 
 jarred it a hairbreadth beyond endurance, and it 
 slid out sideways and came clattering down into 
 the dungeon. It was that ladder which the Wirt
 
 136 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 at the Gasthof had considered too short for the 
 purpose. 
 
 "Oh, my God in heaven!" cried Mrs. Dunn. 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie gave an awful shriek, tumbled to- 
 gether in a heap in a corner, and really and truly 
 faulted.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 WHERE NO ONE WORRIES 
 
 ABOUT quarter to four that afternoon Grace Waters, 
 prettily dressed and looking very sweet indeed, came 
 out of her room and went and tapped at the door of 
 the sitting-room. 
 
 "Come in!" cried Dunn's voice. 
 
 She entered. Dunn was playing cards with Bobby 
 by one window. He thought that his wife should not 
 have left him to amuse Bobby, but still he didn't 
 mind so much, for he enjoyed card-playing and the 
 interest in the game made Bobby forget to ask about 
 the donkey-wagon. Ellerslie was sitting by the other 
 window, reading. 
 
 "Hasn't Cousin Lizzie come back?" Grace asked, 
 looking about. 
 
 "No," said Dunn. "Wait, Bobby, you can't do 
 that. No, she has n't!" 
 
 "Then I'll lay the tea-table to-day," said Grace. 
 
 Ellerslie raised his eyes and was fairly startled to 
 see how pretty she looked. For a second he forgot 
 that he and his wife were reconciled, and started to 
 offer to help her. Then he remembered how affairs
 
 138 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 stood and went on reading. Dunn and Bobby were 
 there, anyhow. 
 
 Grace unfolded the tea-cloth and spread it on the 
 oval table. Then she lifted the tea-tray from the top 
 of the tea-wagon over on to the table, and laid the 
 spoons and napkins around. 
 
 " I think 1 11 light the spirit lamp," she said. " It '11 
 be tea-time by the time it boils." She wondered 
 where Belden was and if he were out walking with 
 the others. "Where is the spirit lamp?" she asked. 
 
 "I guess it's hi your room," said Dunn. "I take 
 this, Bobby; now you see why you've got to look 
 sharp when you play with Papa." 
 
 "No, I have my own; only it's burnt out," said 
 Grace. 
 
 "I'd tell you to go and get ours, only that's burnt 
 out, too," said Ellerslie, looking up. "No one can 
 say that we have n't spirit lamps enough, for you hit 
 against them whichever way you turn in the dark. 
 But the beastly things are always burnt out." 
 
 "Mamma keeps hers behind that curtain," said 
 Bobby; "she keeps it hid so as to keep it, she says. 
 Ow! Oh, Papa, let me take that back; I wasn't 
 thinking." 
 
 "No, young man, when you play with your Papa 
 you must play man to man. Now I take that, 
 too." 
 
 "But I ain't a man yet, Papa, and you are.
 
 WHERE NO ONE WORRIES 139 
 
 Mamma says you never forget to be a man for a 
 minute." Bobby was plainly very much put out. 
 
 "It's your play, Bobby." 
 
 "Oh, Papa, do you suppose the donkey-wagon's 
 come?" 
 
 "Goon, Bobby." 
 
 Grace was filling the spirit lamp, which she had 
 found behind the curtain, with the alcohol which 
 she had also found there. Then she looked all 
 around for matches, found some, and lit the lamp. 
 
 "Horrid smelling stuff that is," said Ellerslie, 
 looking up again. "No one would have it around 
 at home, you know." 
 
 "You can get pure alcohol at the Apotheke if you 
 want it, I dare say," said Dunn; "go on, Bobby." 
 
 Grace filled the kettle with water and set it on to 
 boil. Then she came and sat down in the corner of 
 the sofa. Ellerslie shut up his book. 
 
 "Feel all right now?" he inquired, kindly. 
 
 "Yes, I feel splendidly. I was so sorry to be ill 
 again. You'll think I'm always ill." 
 
 "Oh, no," said Ellerslie, politely. 
 
 "No, we won't play another, Bobby," said his 
 father. "It's impossible to play a good game where 
 people are talking, and anyway it's tea-time." 
 
 " I wonder if I ought to ring for the rolls and butter 
 before they come in ! " Grace asked. 
 
 "Yes, indeed," said Dunn. "They'll be in by the
 
 140 
 
 time it's ready. Lizzie has got her watch, and 
 they know that we always have tea promptly at 
 four." 
 
 Grace rang, and as she rang Will Belden tapped. 
 
 ' ' Come in. Oh, I thought you were out with Lizzie, ' ' 
 Dunn said, as he entered alone. 
 
 Ellerslie had thought that he was out with Mrs. 
 Ellerslie, and brightened up some more because he 
 wasn't. 
 
 "But where are the rest of us?" Belden asked, 
 taking the other end of the sofa and looking at Grace 
 with eyes fascinated afresh. 
 
 "They're off walking somewhere," said Dunn. 
 "They'll be here hi a minute. Lizzie's got her 
 watch." 
 
 "They wouldn't go far," said Grace. "Mrs. 
 Ellerslie walked to Salder this morning, you know; 
 she'd be tired. I heard her say she had on the wrong 
 shoes." 
 
 "Funny hole, Salder," said Ellerslie, wondering 
 why he had n't taken the other place on the sofa 
 while it was empty. "Ever been there?" to Grace. 
 
 "Not yet," answered Dunn. 
 
 "We must walk there some day," said Will Belden 
 to Grace. "There's a castle there, isn't there?" to 
 Ellerslie. 
 
 "There's a kind of a big house, but no castle. The 
 Amtmann lives hi it. What is an Amtmann?"
 
 WHERE NO ONE WORRIES 141 
 
 "It's the man that gets the taxes after they're 
 collected," said Belden. 
 
 "How interesting!" said Grace Waters, and she 
 really thought that it was. 
 
 Just here Minna brought the rolls and butter, cake 
 and sugar, and the kettle began to boil. 
 
 "Shall I make the tea or shall we wait a little?" 
 Grace asked. 
 
 "There's no use waiting," said Dunn, who was 
 hungry. 
 
 "Mamma's got her watch," said Bobby, who was 
 hungry, too. 
 
 So the tea was made, and Grace sat at the head 
 of the table and poured it. Belden watched her and 
 thought how clever she was. It takes brains to pour 
 tea. 
 
 "We'll have to get out for a walk after tea," he 
 said, with vague generality, as he buttered his roll. 
 
 "Oh, Papa, can we walk to the station and see if 
 my donkey-wagon's come?" exclaimed Bobby. 
 
 " Shall you put him back in the same school where 
 he was before, when we leave here?" Ellerslie asked. 
 
 "I suppose so," said Dunn. "His mother wants 
 him to learn German." 
 
 "But I can't understand what anybody says to 
 me in that school," said Bobby. "I wish I could go 
 to school hi France." 
 
 "If I had a boy I'd educate him in America," said
 
 142 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 Ellerslie. " I 'd never sacrifice the future of an Ameri- 
 can to any woman's whims." 
 
 "I don't want to go to school anywhere," said 
 Bobby. "I want to play outdoors. I want my 
 donkey-wagon." 
 
 "I do wonder where Cousin Lizzie can be," said 
 Grace. 
 
 "She's having a good time somewhere," said Dunn. 
 "Perhaps they're getting tea up at the castle. I saw 
 a lot of tables and chairs up there." 
 
 "They could only get coffee up there," said 
 Belden. 
 
 " I meant coffee, of course," said Dunn. 
 
 "I hope Nell hasn't been persuaded into a long 
 walk," said Ellerslie, seeing how absorbed Miss Waters 
 and Mr. Belden were becoming, and feeling his heart 
 thrill suddenly towards his wife. "She gets tired 
 easily." 
 
 "They didn't speak as if they were going far," 
 said Grace. "I can't see why they don't come." 
 
 "Nothing in the wide world could happen to two 
 able-bodied women in these woods," said Dunn. 
 "They'll have some perfectly reasonable story to tell 
 when they come in. I'll have some more tea, 
 please." 
 
 "It always frets my wife to have me worry," said 
 Ellerslie. "I never worry, anyway. If one of them 
 sees a snake the other's there to yell, and I never
 
 WHERE NO ONE WORRIES 143 
 
 knew Nellie to faint when it wasn't practical. I'll 
 have some more tea, too, please." 
 
 " Perhaps I'd better start more water to boil," 
 said Grace. 
 
 "Let me do it," said Belden, jumping up. More 
 water was started to boiling. 
 
 " Pretty view over the plain," said Ellerslie. His 
 tea was making him feel good. 
 
 "Papa, when we're done, won't you take me to 
 the station to see if my donkey-wagon's come?" 
 asked Bobby. 
 
 "Well," said Dunn, also much cheered by food and 
 drink, "I don't know but I will. Only you mustn't 
 blame Papa if it is not there, you know." 
 
 "Don't you want to go to walk, too?" Belden 
 asked Grace. 
 
 She hesitated. " I ought to wait for Cousin Lizzie, 
 I think," she said. 
 
 " Nonsense," said Dunn, " you 'd make Lizzie awfully 
 mad if you did any such thing. Go on." 
 
 "Well, I will then," said Grace. "Won't you come 
 too, Mr. Ellerslie?" 
 
 "No, I'll wait here," said Ellerslie. 
 
 "You'd better come along with Bobby and me," 
 said Dunn, who had become extremely good-tem- 
 pered under the influence of the tea which was 
 much stronger than usual, owing to Belden's hav- 
 ing turned the caddy upside down into the tea-
 
 144 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 pot. "We'll have just a pleasant hour getting 
 down and back. Well, are you most done, young 
 man? Papa can't wait forever, you know." 
 
 "I'm all done," said Bobby; "I'm ready." 
 
 Ellerslie hesitated as to what to do. 
 
 "Come on," said Dunn. The strength of the tea 
 had caused him to entirely forget his animosity 
 towards Mrs. Ellerslie's husband. " It 's a good thing 
 to walk between tea and supper. That 's what we 're 
 here for." 
 
 "All right, I'll go with you," said Ellerslie, him- 
 self subtly influenced by the cup which, under 
 Mrs. Dunn's superintendence, never cheered too 
 loudly. 
 
 " Shall I save something for them when they come? " 
 Grace asked. 
 
 "No; if they'd meant to have tea here they'd 
 have been back in time," said Dunn. " Lizzie has her 
 watch." 
 
 "Then I'll pick up the things." 
 
 "And I'll help you," said Belden. 
 
 Ellerslie, Dunn, and Bobby went out hi the hall. 
 Ellerslie and Dunn lit cigars, and Bobby ran for his 
 Alpenstock. 
 
 "Is he going to take that through the village?" 
 Ellerslie inquired. 
 
 "He won't hurt anything," said Dunn. "He can 
 take it if he wants to. That's why the boy likes to
 
 WHERE NO ONE WORRIES 145 
 
 get out with me, it 's because I give him the free 
 hand. His mother fusses too much." 
 
 "Women always fuss," said Ellerslie, agreeably. 
 
 They went out into the court. There was nobody 
 there except the forester's dog. He got up from where 
 he was lying and looked sadly and earnestly into 
 their faces. 
 
 "He wants to come, too," said Bobby; "can't 
 he?" 
 
 "Oh, yes, let him come, too," said Dunn, still 
 rejoicing in the good effects of Grace's tea. 
 
 "I should think the forester would want his dog 
 with him," said Ellerslie. "If I kept a dog I should 
 want him with me." 
 
 "He does want it with him," said Bobby, "but 
 the dog did n't want to go. The forester 's gone to 
 another forest on his bicycle, and the dog got tired 
 and came back." 
 
 "Funny business, the way they handle the forests 
 here," said Ellerslie. "I understand you can't cut 
 down a tree in Germany without permission." 
 
 " I 'd like to see any one forbidding me to cut down 
 a tree that belonged to me," said Dunn. 
 
 "What would you do, Papa?" asked Bobby, 
 curiously. 
 
 "What would I do! Well, I'd make him re- 
 member your Papa till the last day he lived, young 
 man.' 7 
 
 10
 
 146 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "They make a pretty good thing out of their forests 
 over here, though," said Ellerslie. 
 
 "Oh, after a fashion, after a fashion," said Dunn. 
 "But just look over statistics and compare their cut 
 and their exports with ours. I tell you the results 
 are paralyzing. We lead the world on lumber." 
 
 "It's a subject in which I don't take the slightest 
 interest," said Ellerslie. "I pay my taxes and let 
 the rest fight it out to suit themselves." 
 
 "Hi, Bobby, quit chasing those ducks," cried 
 Dunn. "Papa didn't buy you that Alpenstock for 
 any such nonsense." 
 
 "You did n't buy me that Alpenstock," said Bobby, 
 returning from his momentary pursuit of tame game. 
 "Cousin Grace gave it to me, and Mamma gave her 
 back the Mark she paid for it." 
 
 "Well, where did Mamma get that Mark, I 'd like 
 to know? You want to think a little bit about 
 that." 
 
 "I'd never buy a child an Alpenstock," said 
 Ellerslie. 
 
 "I wasn't consulted," said Dunn. "Curious wall 
 to the left there; must be part of the old town- wall." 
 
 "This never was a town; it 's only a village." 
 
 "Well, it had a wall. You can see that. Those 
 are the kind of little windows they always had in old 
 walls." 
 
 Ellerslie diverged to the side and examined one of
 
 WHERE NO ONE WORRIES 147 
 
 the windows. It was blocked within. Dunn joined 
 him and felt of one or two stones. 
 
 "It 's old, all right," he said, appreciatively. 
 
 "Oh, everything 's old over here," said Ellerslie. 
 "I suppose that castle up there dates back to Char- 
 lemagne." 
 
 "I don't remember just when he lived, but it's 
 an old castle. Come out of that mud, Bobby." 
 
 " T is n't muddy, Papa." 
 
 "Yes, it 's muddy; look how you 've spattered my 
 trousers. If you want to walk with Papa you 've 
 got to behave." 
 
 "Children never like walking," said Ellerslie. 
 
 "And this is a dirty walk, too," said Dunn, "and 
 stony. If Napoleon made this road, as they tell me 
 he did, I don't think it does him much credit." 
 
 "What should Napoleon build a road through 
 Dichtenberg for? Why did n't he use the Goslar 
 Road over there?" 
 
 "Don't ask me. I don't know anything about it. 
 Maybe it was n't built then." 
 
 " Yes, it was. It 's the highroad from Goslar to 
 Brunswick. It 's always been there. That 's where 
 the people used to be going along when they swooped 
 down on them out of Dichtenberg and carried all the 
 men they did n't kill off to prison." 
 
 "And they put them in that hole down under the 
 castle, didn't they, Papa?" asked Bobby, coming
 
 148 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 up from behind with a frog-like vaulting over the 
 Alpenstock. 
 
 "They just did, my son, and kept them there." 
 
 "Nobody ever has to stay in prison now, do they, 
 Papa?" 
 
 "Oh, yes; when they do anything wrong, bad 
 men go to the nice clean jail in town, but no one 
 ever has to stay in a castle dungeon any more." 
 
 "I wouldn't like to have to stay hi that hole; 
 we looked in it this morning and it was dark," said 
 Bobby, continuing to take leaps. 
 
 "Nobody will ever be in that hole again, Bobby," 
 said his father, benevolently ; "that 's one sure thing." 
 
 "They found skeletons there, Mamma said," said 
 Bobby, "lots of them. How long does it take to 
 make a skeleton, Papa?" 
 
 "It " began Dunn, and was instantly hushed by 
 the Molkerei. 
 
 "What is that smell, anyhow?" Ellerslie asked, 
 when they were by at last. 
 
 "It 's cows or cheese or something on that order," 
 said Dunn. For a few brief sweet seconds he gave 
 himself over to warm recollections of how Mrs. El- 
 lerslie had looked that morning just as cruel Fate ! 
 He pulled himself together with a jerk. "I wonder 
 what that windmill over there grinds." 
 
 "Perhaps it doesn't grind, perhaps it pumps." 
 Ellerslie had gotten out a cigar.
 
 149 
 
 "Bobby," cried Dunn, "come off that plowed 
 ground. Look at your shoes now! What would 
 Mamma say if Papa came home with shoes like 
 yours?" 
 
 Bobby contemplated his shoes earnestly. "I 
 guess she 'd think your feet had got awful little," 
 he said. 
 
 Ellerslie laughed. " Oh, he 's just as sharp as they 
 make them," said Dunn, with great satisfaction. 
 "Run along now, Bobby; three can't walk on this 
 walk." 
 
 "Awful narrow walk," commented Ellerslie. 
 
 "Well, every one always walks in the street, you 
 know." 
 
 "Why, Papa, why does every one walk in the 
 street?" 
 
 "Bobby, Papa said to run on, and Papa always 
 means what he says you know that." 
 
 "You've got him well trained," said Ellerslie. 
 "One word from you and he does exactly what he 
 pleases." 
 
 Thus improving each golden minute with conver- 
 sation at once intellectual and uplifting, the three 
 masculine creatures finally arrived at the station. 
 
 The donkey-wagon was there. 
 
 "And when can you send it up?" Dunn asked. 
 
 It appeared that the donkey would have to come 
 down himself for his cart.
 
 150 
 
 "You '11 have it to-morrow morning, Bobby," said 
 his father, tenderly. "Now what do you say?" 
 
 "Thank you a million times for my donkey-wagon, 
 Papa." 
 
 "Come on," said Ellerslie, "let 's start back."
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 LEFT TOGETHER 
 
 BELDEN and Grace left together felt too vaguely 
 happy for words. There is something so wonderful 
 ha being left together if you really want to be. 
 Under such circumstances it seems the most remark- 
 able piece of luck that ever happened yet, and much 
 too fairylike to be true. (And it generally is.) 
 
 "I suppose I'd better pick up the things/' said 
 Grace, not looking at him because she knew that he 
 was looking at her. "They won't expect tea now." 
 
 Belden felt how different she was from Mrs. El- 
 lerslie. Mrs. Ellerslie always kept her eyes fixed on 
 him so as to be ready to look away quickly when he 
 should look up. When a man gets past the first bloom 
 of his youth, he 'd rather wish for a look than receive 
 it full in his face. "Yes, and I '11 help you," he ex- 
 claimed, getting up. 
 
 It was perfectly delightful, the clearing away. 
 Grace shook the table-cloth out of the window and 
 such crumbs as did n't go astray in the hogshead of 
 rain-water fell alike on the just and unjust hens 
 below.
 
 "Let me fold the cloth," begged the man. 
 
 "No, you would not get it in the folds," said the 
 maid, blushing over goodness knows what. 
 
 Then she put the cloth away in its proper place 
 under the tea-wagon, rolled the tea-wagon to the 
 side again, replaced the vase of forget-me-nots in the 
 center of the table, and paused irresolute. 
 
 "Now we're going to walk, you know," said 
 Belden, gently. 
 
 "Oh, are we?" She gave a little start. 
 
 "Of course; did n't you promise?" 
 
 She didn't remember having promised, but she 
 was charmed to find that she had done so inadver- 
 tently. It seemed an agreeable precedent. 
 
 "Wait till I get my stick," said the man, with deep 
 feeling, and went at once to fetch it. 
 
 "I thought that you lost your stick up in the 
 castle this morning," Grace said when he returned. 
 
 "Oh, that was only a cheap one I got in Goslar. 
 I was as mad as a hatter at first, though. I thought 
 that it was my other." 
 
 "Cousin Lizzie said your grandfather gave it to 
 you." 
 
 "Yes, I thought that it was that one at first, but 
 as soon as I got home I found I had the other out 
 with me. I would n't have lost that stick of my 
 grandfather's for anything ; it 's got a little hole 
 where the tassel went through. Oh, if it had been
 
 LEFT TOGETHER 153 
 
 that stick, I 'd have been up there before now and 
 gotten it back." 
 
 "Could you get it back?" 
 
 " Of course ; just stick a ladder in and climb down." 
 
 They went out. 
 
 The air was glorious and the forest gorgeous. The 
 roadway ahead was carpeted in bright golden brown, 
 and overhead sunlight and the call of southward- 
 flying birds was heard. The wide plain, dotted 
 with cheerful little red-roofed villages, lay to their 
 left. 
 
 "How could an army have the heart to come and 
 set fire to them all!" Grace said, not knowing what 
 to say, and wishing that her escort would n't crowd 
 her completely into the gutter. 
 
 "They didn't think anything about such things. 
 Men had no hearts in those days," said Belden. 
 
 Grace blushed at the word " hearts." She had been 
 educated mainly in Europe, and the situation seemed 
 to her to border on the wild and risque, anyhow. 
 
 "Let 's walk under the trees," said the man, lead- 
 ing the way hence; "it 's prettier." 
 
 " It 's all pretty," the girl said. Belden thought her 
 ever so much cleverer than Mrs. Ellerslie. He turned 
 and looked sharply at her hair. Those curls were 
 never pinned on! He felt angry at Mrs. Dunn for 
 having suggested it. 
 
 "I do wonder where Cousin Lizzie got tea," said
 
 154 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 Grace ; " don't you think it 's queer, their not coming 
 back?" 
 
 " Oh, I don't know. Perhaps they 've had trouble 
 with their husbands and are paying them out." 
 
 "Oh, do you think so?" 
 
 " I don't know. Married people are so queer. I 'd 
 never act towards a woman the way those men do. 
 I know that!" 
 
 Grace felt this to be terribly pointed. "But 
 but they 're very fond of one another, I thought," 
 she faltered. 
 
 "I don't know," said Belden, again. "It's none 
 of it according to my ideas. I 'd never kiss my wife 
 before people, or scold her, either." 
 
 "But do they k-k do they do it before people?" 
 
 " I 've seen Ellerslie do it. I suppose he thought 
 it drove me wild. As if I cared who kissed his wife !" 
 
 "Oh, you don't think that very many men 
 k-k love Mrs. Ellerslie, do you? Not really?" 
 
 " I did n't mean it that way. I meant any man 
 could kiss his own wife, for all I cared." 
 
 " Oh, I see. But that is n't an uncommon way for 
 any one to feel, is it?" 
 
 Belden thought her innocently childish standpoint 
 too lovely for words. "What I mean," he said, "is 
 that I wish that married couples would keep their 
 quarrels and their kisses to their own room. I think 
 it 's bad taste to parade either in public. If they only
 
 LEFT TOGETHER 155 
 
 kissed it would be silly enough, but to kiss and quarrel 
 before people is downright idiotic." 
 
 " I 've never seen them k-kissing," said Grace, 
 intending no innuendo. "Oh, isn't it pretty here? 
 I think Dichtenberg is prettier than Switzerland, 
 don't you?" 
 
 "Have you ever been in Switzerland?" 
 
 " Not yet. Have you? " She was altogether girlish. 
 
 "Yes, I 've been everywhere." 
 
 " Oh ! " She looked up at him and opened her eyes 
 widely. " How nice ! " she said then, with additional 
 girlishness. 
 
 Belden was falling more and more in love. She 
 was so sweet and unsophisticated. And how domestic 
 she had looked, folding that tea-cloth so careful to 
 get it in the right folds, too ! 
 
 "Which shall we take?" he asked, pausing where 
 the Salder, Dichtenberg, and Oelber ways all came 
 together. 
 
 "I don't care a bit not a bit." 
 
 "Let 's go down towards Schloss Oelber; then we 
 can see the sun set." 
 
 "That will be lovely. I love to watch the sun set." 
 
 They set out towards Oelber. 
 
 "I should like to own a country place of my own," 
 Belden said. 
 
 The blood rushed to Grace's face; she felt this to 
 be almost too terribly pointed.
 
 156 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "Wh- where would you like to have it?" she 
 asked, faintly. 
 
 " I would n't care. I 'd like it as well here as any- 
 where. This is a pretty country." 
 
 " Yes, and there 's game, too ! " 
 
 Belden was astonished at how acutely she under- 
 stood masculine nature. He had n't expected that 
 of her. 
 
 "I suppose that there is some way ot buying shoot- 
 ing rights," he said. 
 
 "You could shoot rabbits, anyway," said Grace. 
 "They're glad to have any one shoot rabbits any- 
 where." 
 
 Belden did n't think that so very bright of her, 
 but it showed how simple and untrained was her na- 
 ture. Mrs. Ellerslie would never have said such a 
 thing. Mrs. Ellerslie was clever, perhaps too clever. 
 
 "Pretty view ahead," he said. 
 
 "It's beautiful. Those trees and then the grass. 
 I love to be hi the country. I love trees and grass, 
 too, of course." 
 
 "Have you ever lived in the country?" 
 
 "Five months twice." 
 
 "Then you know all about it." 
 
 She felt overwhelmed at his praise and turned 
 deep crimson. "I I know a little about it," she 
 faltered. "Oh, there's a rabbit!" 
 
 "I wonder where those two did really walk to,"
 
 LEFT TOGETHER 157 
 
 said Belden. "Don't you think it seems queer, their 
 going off and staying off like that?" 
 
 " Yes, I think it 's queer. But no one was fright- 
 ened." 
 
 "There was nothing to be frightened over, but I 
 do think that it was queer. I '11 be curious to hear 
 what they did do when we get back." 
 
 "Do you want to go back right now? " 
 
 "You witch! No, I don't want to go back right 
 now." 
 
 Grace felt the blood thrill to her finger-tips; no 
 man had ever called her a witch before. She looked 
 down at the ground. "There 's one of those big red 
 snails," she said, faintly. 
 
 "Yes, aren't they curious? It would be interest- 
 ing to study snails, would n't it?" He thought that 
 it really would be, as he spoke the words. 
 
 " I 'd like to study mushrooms." She did n't want 
 to contradict him, but she felt that they could never 
 agree on snails. "There are so many mushrooms hi 
 these woods, and it 's nice to know which are poison- 
 ous if you mean to eat them. Oh, there 's another 
 rabbit." 
 
 "I'll send and get you a book," Belden said, 
 "about mushrooms, you know." 
 
 "Wouldn't that be interesting? We could take 
 it into the woods and compare it with the mush- 
 rooms."
 
 158 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "It would be great sport," said the man, with 
 conviction. "I'll write for one to-night." 
 
 "But we have n't so very much longer here," said 
 the girl, suddenly. "You must get it right off." 
 
 Belden liked the suggestiveness of her "must" 
 immensely. "I didn't know that there was any 
 limit set for our stay here," he said. 
 
 "Cousin Lizzie wrote me that she would be here 
 for a fortnight ; of course, I 've got to go when she 
 does." 
 
 "Well, of course, I 'm not going to stay after you 
 go," said Belden. He did n't mean anything except 
 just exactly what he said, but Grace blushed furiously. 
 
 "It will be very hard to go," she said, "the the 
 woods are so pretty here." She blushed more, noted 
 another rabbit, but found speech too difficult and let 
 it hop off unremarked. 
 
 "There, that 's Oelber down there," said Belden, 
 pointing. "You can just see the tower of the castle." 
 
 She had to pull herself together. 
 
 "Is there a castle there? Is it as old as ours?" 
 
 "I don't know. Nobody knows how old ours is, 
 you know. This valley's beautiful, isn't it?" He 
 looked at her. 
 
 "Yes, it's lovely. I do love the country. Oh, 
 I 've got a bit of gravel in my shoe ! " How she 
 blessed that diversion from such trying personalities ! 
 
 "Can I get it out for you?" (Oh, heavens!)
 
 LEFT TOGETHER 159 
 
 "The very idea ! Just just walk on a little," 
 she said, unable to look up. 
 
 He strolled on. Wide brown fields stretched to 
 the right and left, and the peasants were plowing, 
 the teams of big white and yellow oxen being dotted 
 all over the fields. Some wagons marked Domane 
 Dichtenberg stood by the side of the road, and down 
 by the gram stacks in the hollow the Verwalter was 
 slowly going along on his handsome horse. 
 
 "There, I've got it out," Grace said, overtaking 
 him; "gravel in one's shoe is so annoying." 
 
 "You ought to wear high shoes in the country," 
 said Belden ; "if you belonged to me I 'd see that you 
 did it, too." 
 
 " If she belonged to him ! " The young girl felt as 
 if the sky had opened and poured a rain of finely 
 pulverized electricity right down upon her head. " If 
 she belonged to him ! " She could not speak. She 
 was beginning to wonder, oh, but how she was 
 beginning to wonder ! 
 
 Along towards half-past six they got back to the 
 house. 
 
 "Now we '11 find out what those two really did do," 
 Belden exclaimed, as they descended the road. 
 
 They soon knew all. 
 
 Every one but the cook was up at the castle, and 
 the cook was standing on a chair in the kitchen 
 window, looking that way.
 
 160 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "Oh, gracious sir," she cried, when she saw Bel- 
 den, "the young one from the Gasthof above is already 
 here at six o'clock and has carried every one back 
 with him. The two gracious ladies sit above in the 
 Burgverliess! The two gracious ladies sit already 
 long in the Burgverliess."
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 TO ARMS AGAIN 
 
 THE rescue was harrowing in the extreme, and there 
 was some reason to fear the arrest of both victims 
 for having pried a locked trap-door open. It seemed, 
 too, that there was a sign up forbidding any one to 
 wander recklessly over the ruins, so they had really 
 broken two laws at one fell swoop. The Wirt of the 
 Gasthof had to be liberally recompensed, as it was 
 his small boy who had been called above by a gentle- 
 man and a red-haired lady strolling hi the woods, and 
 asked if he did n't hear certain feeble screams which 
 they fancied that they heard also. The screams and 
 the boy had been great factors in the happy finale, 
 and also it was the Wirt himself who had actually had 
 to carry Mrs. Ellerslie up the ladder that was too long, 
 and had had to be fetched from the Domane after all. 
 The group around the hole during the fetching may 
 be imagined. 
 
 Ellerslie was furious with his wife and every one 
 else. Dunn was dreadfully worked up, but thought 
 Elizabeth ought to have known better than to take 
 such chances at her age. Bobby wailed horribly ; he 
 was frankly, unfeignedly frightened over his mother. 
 
 11
 
 162 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 Belden worked like a hero, rushing to the Domane 
 for a ladder, and assisting in its progress up the 
 Burgberg. Grace stood by in the dark, and shivered 
 and quivered with every emotion known. To her the 
 accident was pure, unalloyed tragedy. 
 
 About nine o'clock all was over, and both women 
 in their own respective beds, Mrs. Ellerslie hugging 
 Mrs. Dunn's hot-water bottle. Grace had to give up 
 all thought of her own frail constitution and attend 
 two spirit lamps with an activity worthy all the 
 Vestal Virgins combined. Belden was unable to help 
 her, as neither of the married ladies could forget that 
 it was his cane that had led them so far upon the 
 downward path to Avernus. 
 
 "I never shall get warm again in this world," 
 Mrs. Ellerslie sobbed. "Oh, my dear, do boil some 
 more water and fill this fresh. It gets cold so quick, 
 and I don't get warm at all." 
 
 Grace lit the spirit lamp. " You '11 feel better after 
 you have something to eat," she said. "Only think 
 if we had n't found you all night. Oh ! " 
 
 "I'd have been dead," wailed Mrs. Ellerslie. "I 
 fully expected to die down there. I don't see how 
 we ever came to come here. It 's so uncivilized to 
 be able to fall into a dungeon. Oh, my head !" 
 
 She really was an object of sympathy. Only El- 
 lerslie did n't see it that way. "Just as soon as you 
 can stand up, we 're going to leave," he observed sav-
 
 TO ARMS AGAIN 163 
 
 agely, surveying her from the foot of the bed while 
 Grace was away hunting a pocket-handkerchief for 
 the other invalid. "The very idea! A ladder 
 indeed ! " 
 
 "Don't scold me," cried his wife, "you're always 
 so cruel ! I don't know what I ever married you 
 for ! And maybe I 'm going to die ! And think of 
 how happy we were in Salder only this morning!" 
 
 Salder softened Ellerslie suddenly. He came around 
 and sat down on the bed beside her and started to 
 no one ever knew what he started to do for before 
 he had even begun it appeared that he had inadver- 
 tently landed on the hot-water bag, which promptly 
 burst. 
 
 The results were almost as trying as the Burg- 
 verliess. Mrs. Ellerslie had on the only high-necked 
 nightgown which she owned, and now, while Grace 
 was pulling the bed to pieces and draining the mat- 
 tress into the slop- jar, the invalided lady had to don 
 a decollete gown with the jacket of her husband's 
 pajamas. There was something in the way that she 
 looked in the glass that just about finished Mrs. 
 Ellerslie. She began to cry and there was n't a soul 
 to see, which was the worst of all. Grace was down 
 asking for bedding for the soaked bed, and Ellerslie 
 was wringing out his white flannel trousers in Belden's 
 room, for this was one of those hours of stress which 
 are popularly supposed to bring people together
 
 164 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 again, no matter what previous things they may 
 have differed over. 
 
 "Oh, my dear, what am I going to do without that 
 hot-water bag?" Mrs. Ellerslie wailed to Grace as 
 soon as she returned. She was getting into her hus- 
 band's bed. "Oh, I'm so cold again! This will 
 kill me. I know that this will kill me." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn felt terribly over the bag, too. "What 
 shall I do?" she said, appealing to Grace as soon as 
 the girl got in there to get her some tea. "I never 
 move without one." 
 
 "They're so convenient," said Grace. "I don't 
 know what I 'd have done without yours here. It 's 
 been such a comfort. Why, Cousin Lizzie, there 's no 
 more tea in the caddy !" 
 
 "No more tea! How much did you use this 
 afternoon?" 
 
 "I don't know. Mr. Belden put the tea in the 
 pot." 
 
 "Oh, Grace, he must have turned the caddy up- 
 side down. Whatever made you let him help?" 
 
 "I don't know, Cousin Lizzie; he was here and 
 he wanted to. Haven't you any more anywhere?" 
 
 "Not a bit. I wrote this morning to Brunswick 
 for some more, but it can't possibly get here till 
 to-morrow." 
 
 "I 'm so sorry," said Grace. 
 
 Mrs. Dunn was silent. She felt very ill and terribly
 
 TO ARMS AGAIN 165 
 
 tried. As I hinted before, time of stress rarely does 
 produce idyllic sweetness of disposition in the stressed. 
 
 Minna brought up soup later and asked if either 
 lady wanted beer. Neither wanted beer. Dunn un- 
 dertook to put Bobby to bed later yet, but Bobby, 
 too, was out of sorts. 
 
 "I want to sleep with Mamma," he said; "my 
 throat 's sore." 
 
 If there is anything that frightens the parents of 
 an only child, it 's to have the child mention that 
 his or her throat is sore. Dunn could n't get into 
 the next room quick enough. 
 
 "Bobby's throat 's sore!" he announced. 
 
 Mrs. Dunn gave a start and then a groan, got 
 stiffly up and looked for her slippers. 
 
 "I saw them in Mrs. Ellerslie's room," said Grace, 
 helpfully, and ran to get them, but failed to find 
 them. 
 
 His mother had Bobby gargle with carbolic acid 
 in the water. "Is it very sore?" she asked. 
 
 " 'T ain't sore at all," said Bobby. "I just wanted 
 a chance to speak to you alone, and ask you if I can 
 go barefoot to-morrow." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn clasped her hands tightly together. 
 "We'll see, dear," she said, with rare self-control, 
 and went back to bed. Later in the night Dunn, 
 getting up to draw the shades which he had neglected 
 to do because his wife had always done it heretofore,
 
 166 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 stepped on a thumb-tack, but that was muck later 
 in the night. 
 
 "What have you done?" his wife asked, feebly 
 waking up to his remarks. 
 
 "I don't know. Where are the matches?" 
 
 "I don't know Oh, yes, I do. I gave the last 
 box to Will." 
 
 There was a frightful hush. 
 
 "And he talks about the Ellerslies' borrowing, does 
 he!" 
 
 Silence.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 AND SO FORTH 
 
 THE donkey-wagon arrived safely. The only thing 
 wrong about it was that it was made for a pair of 
 goats, and so could not be used immediately for a 
 single donkey. This was hard on Bobby, but his 
 mother was able to sit up, so he was beguiled into 
 a species of patience. 
 
 Ellerslie had made up with his wife again. 
 
 "I can't stand it." Belden, coming in to ask Mrs. 
 Dunn how she felt, made this statement. "The way 
 he spoke to her that night when she came up out of 
 that hole with her arms around the man at the 
 Gasthof's neck and then to-day at dinner ! " 
 
 Mrs. Dunn sighed wearily. The tea had n't yet 
 come. "You must be patient," she said; "perhaps 
 something good will come out of this in the end." 
 
 Belden felt compassionate. "Grace and I" it 
 was "Grace" by this time "are going up to the 
 castle to see the well ; the man was telling me about 
 it last night." 
 
 "Very well," said Mrs. Dunn, wearily. "Tell 
 Grace if she wants my cape to wear to ask Nellie for
 
 168 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 it. I had to give it to her when we were down in that 
 hole. Oh, what an experience !" 
 
 "Didn't you need it yourself?" Belden asked. 
 
 Mrs. Dunn looked out of the window. "I need a 
 good many things myself," she said, sadly; "that's 
 why I carry them with me." It was plain that her 
 mind had reverted to the hot-water bag. 
 
 "Mamma," said Bobby, running in, "if you hitched 
 the donkey one side of the stick, would n't the wagon 
 pull?" 
 
 Belden departed. 
 
 Grace was standing at the hall window, looking 
 out. The doctor's dog had just bitten another child, 
 and the doctor was energetically to the fore in the 
 court below. 
 
 She turned when she heard the step behind her. 
 
 "Such a lovely day," she said, sweetly. 
 
 "Yes, and we have a good hour and a half 
 ahead of us to enjoy before dinner," said Belden; 
 "come." 
 
 They started towards the stairs, and, just as they 
 came abreast of the Ellerslie door, the Ellerslie door 
 opened and the Ellerslies, attired for walking, came 
 out, all smiles. 
 
 Grace was disappointed, but could n't help looking 
 pretty, anyway ; Mrs. Ellerslie was always pretty and 
 now radiant into the bargain. 
 
 " Oh, what fun ! " she said ; " where are you going? "
 
 AND SO FORTH 169 
 
 Belden threw a despairing look at Grace. "Up to 
 the castle," he said, hopelessly. 
 
 "We'll go with you," said Mrs. Ellerslie, "unless 
 perhaps you don't want us." She looked archly at 
 them both. " If you don't want us, you only have to 
 say so, you know." 
 
 When people want to be alone there is nothing that 
 affects them like the fear of showing it. 
 
 " Oh, you know I never can see too much of you," 
 said Belden, making up his mind to get even with 
 her at any cost, and he straightway grabbed her by 
 the elbow and hustled her down-stairs in short order. 
 
 "Oh, do be careful. Don't let Frank see!" she 
 whispered hurriedly, thrilling with delight. "Let's 
 walk fast and get quite a bit ahead. I've a million 
 things to say to you." 
 
 Belden walked as fast as she liked. "Tell me all 
 about everything," he said, as they plunged wildly 
 up the castle-path. "He's been so tigerish I thought 
 I'd better not put my head in his mouth for a while. 
 I knew you'd understand. You know you always 
 understand," he added, pressing her arm in a way 
 that he meant should hurt and which did hurt. 
 
 "Oh, Will, do be careful. Men never quite realize 
 how strong they are, and I turn black and blue so 
 easy, too. Understand! Of course I understand. 
 I always understand." Mrs. Ellerslie, whose strong 
 point was that she really thought that she did always
 
 170 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 understand, looked up in his face again now and smiled 
 winningly. She had the prettiest teeth in the world 
 and knew it. What she did n't know was that they 
 were so beautiful and so even that Belden never for 
 one minute supposed that they were her own. "And 
 now, do go on with all you've got to tell me. You've 
 been ever so much more careful than was necessary; 
 Frank 's so often out walking." 
 
 "Yes, but he's so dreadfully given to coming back. 
 I never saw a man like him." 
 
 " I know. You 're just right about him," she 
 looked serious and injured, "but what can I do, 
 Will? I can't help his coming back." 
 
 "Oh, you're helpless in the case," said Belden; 
 "as long as he pays his bills I suppose any man 
 can keep on returning to any hotel. But it is 
 hard." 
 
 "If it's hard for you think what it must be for 
 me," said the wife. "Oh, and then, that night ! Has 
 any one told you about that night?" 
 
 "Who should tell me? You two have your room 
 alone to yourselves, don't you? Wliat night?" 
 
 "Well, it's just between ourselves, you know, but, 
 you see, he came to sit beside me he 's my husband, 
 you know, so I can't help his sitting beside me when 
 he likes and that wretched old hot-water bag of 
 Lizzie's burst, and half drowned us both." 
 
 "Dear me !" said Will Belden.
 
 AND SO FORTH 171 
 
 " I should say so. Such a mess ! And Frank was 
 furious. He stayed mad for hours." 
 
 "He ought to have been too happy for words over 
 your getting safely out of that scrape." 
 
 "Yes, wouldn't one think so? And I ran such a 
 chance of taking cold, too ; Lizzie had on that thick 
 cape she's so devoted to, but I had nothing." 
 
 Belden looked away and smiled. 
 
 " Do give me your arm, Will, I 'm so out of breath." 
 
 " I'm afraid he ''11 see." 
 
 "Nonsense, that girl will take care to keep him as 
 much to herself as she can. Did you ever see such 
 an assumption of rampant simplicity in all your life?" 
 
 "I think Miss Waters most charming," said the 
 man, very distinctly. Of all things in the world what 
 he least desired was to mention Grace in any conver- 
 sation with Mrs. Ellerslie. 
 
 "Yes, of course she's charming; but you must 
 admit that she knows it much too well. When a 
 woman is older she's bound to be aware of her good 
 points, but don't you think modesty ought to be the 
 first duty of a girl? I do." 
 
 He made no answer. He had not given her his arm, 
 but she took it herself now and bore heavily on it. 
 "Oh, Will, she isn't deceiving you, is she? You 
 are n't letting yourself be taken in? I can't bear to 
 think that." 
 
 Then all of a sudden he felt most fearfully disgusted.
 
 172 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "Don't let us talk about her." 
 
 "I see your danger so plainly. Off alone like this 
 for so long why, a girl who wore a wig, a girl 
 who had n't any hair at all, would be able to able 
 to " 
 
 "Don't say any more on that subject." 
 
 She looked up at him. " Don't throw yourself 
 away hastily. That's all I ask." 
 
 "Please say no more." 
 
 "But I can't stand by and see your heart broken 
 by a girl like that." She was clinging fast to his arm 
 now. " Oh, Will, you know all you 've been to me and 
 all you are to me, but, believe me, it isn't jealousy; 
 it 's love real, warm, tender love love like like 
 well, not just like a sister's, maybe, but ' 
 
 He stopped and looked down into her face. When 
 she got to talking earnestly she frequently wrought 
 herself up to the point of being almost in earnest. 
 It 's a fearful thing to have the gift of being sufficiently 
 eloquent to be able to fool oneself. Mrs. Ellerslie 
 possessed the power in full. 
 
 "Why do you keep talking when I ask you to leave 
 it alone?" Belden asked, real severity in his tone. 
 
 She quite started ; she had n't expected that. He 
 took her hand and unclasped it and put her away 
 from him. "Don't ever speak to me about Miss 
 Waters again," he said then, with still strength. 
 "Do you hear? I won't stand it even from you. This
 
 AND SO FORTH 173 
 
 is final. I mean every word of it." He walked on as 
 he finished. 
 
 "But, Will " 
 
 "Hush ! I won't hear another word." 
 
 11 But " 
 
 She looked up at him. Fright, a fearful sensation 
 of having overreached her aim, filled her. For the 
 space of a few seconds she absolutely did n't know 
 what to do or to say. Then the tears which some 
 women have so ready in every emergency rose up 
 and flowed down her cheeks. She lifted her sweet 
 wet eyes up to Belden, and he glared savagely into 
 them. The tears did n't affect him one bit. It was 
 no use. Wiping them away with the childish gesture 
 she kept for her mightiest minutes, she turned and 
 walked straight back to her husband. Belden looked 
 after her for a second. Then he looked down at the 
 ground and waited. 
 
 Ellerslie and Grace were just rounding the last bend 
 in the path when the former saw his wife approach- 
 ing. Of course he was n't pleased, because he was 
 having a lovely time telling Grace in most general 
 terms what a devil he had been before he had mar- 
 ried. No man who is just deep hi the joy of paint- 
 ing himself black and brimstone to a young girl ever 
 yet wanted his wedded wife to come running up in 
 tears. 
 
 "Well, what is it?" he asked, overlaying his vex-
 
 174 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 ation with a painfully thin coat of solicitude, "have 
 you and Belden fallen out?" 
 
 "F-Frank," her voice shook with feeling, "let me 
 walk with w-with you. Miss Waters, will you 
 please walk with Mr. Belden? I I I want to 
 be alone with my husband." 
 
 Grace walked quickly on and joined the man ahead, 
 but Belden did not return and retrace his way; he 
 did not even speak to her, just turned her out of the 
 path and across the hillside. She went with him, not 
 understanding any of it, but obeying her feeling that 
 she must. The minute after they were out of sight. 
 
 "And now will you kindly tell me what under the 
 sun this all means?" Ellerslie asked his wife. His 
 tone was very savage, so savage that she took refuge 
 in a more prolific downpour. 
 
 "I'm never going to tell," she sobbed, "I'm never 
 going to tell. You can ask me a million times and 
 I '11 never tell." 
 
 There was nothing hi Ellerslie to stand for a re- 
 mark like that; he turned abruptly. "I'll go right 
 down to the hotel and get my pistol and shoot him 
 dead on the spot," he vowed, trying to remember 
 whether he had a pistol with him or not. 
 
 This was ever so much more than his wife had 
 bargained for; she felt with a heavy heart that here 
 was another man suddenly declaring his independ- 
 ence. It seemed too cruel how every one was turning
 
 AND SO FORTH 175 
 
 against her to-day. However, Frank being Frank, 
 she must face him bravely. To that end she stopped 
 shedding tears at once and stopped shaking her voice 
 too. "Oh, no, no," she exclaimed, with sincere 
 appeal, "it wasn't that. I didn't mean what you 
 think he meant. It's just that I think he's in love 
 with that girl." 
 
 The effect of these words may be easier imagined 
 than described. His jealous fury choked him purple. 
 "Helen," he said, "you're the darnedest idiot I ever 
 saw. If you ever speak to Belden again, I'll 
 I '11 - ' He stopped, having no serviceable threat 
 at hand, took her very hard by the arm, marched 
 her down the hill, into the Gasthof, up-stairs and into 
 their room, banged the door, and locked it. 
 
 "Oh, did you hear that?" Mrs. Dunn moaned to 
 her husband. "They've had another row, I know. 
 Why didn't you go in and get my cape and the 
 Baedeker of Northern Germany when I asked you to, 
 dear? You can't interrupt them now." 
 
 "They'll be all over it by dinner-tune," said Dunn. 
 He was playing cat's-cradle with Bobby while his 
 wife sewed a button on his vest. "Don't let the 
 thread show on the back," he cautioned, frowning 
 over the care requisite for the next move. 
 
 "Papa," said Bobby, "you said you'd take me 
 up on top of that tower some night. Can we go 
 to-night?"
 
 176 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "Not to-night, Bobby. Papa said he'd take you 
 when there was a moon." 
 
 "What does the moon matter? I've seen lots of 
 moons." 
 
 "You mustn't tease, Bobby. Papa never does 
 anything when you tease. You know that." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn drew a long breath and cut off her 
 thread. 
 
 "I thought that you were going to sneeze when 
 you did that, Mamma," said Bobby, rocking the 
 cat's-cradle. 
 
 "It's cold enough here to sneeze, anyway," said 
 Dunn. "What possessed you to give the Ellerslies 
 the sunny room, Lizzie?" 
 
 "I liked the view," said the poor woman. 
 
 Bobby went to the window. "There's such lots 
 of view," he said, "such lots and lots of view only 
 there's nothing to see." 
 
 "By George, Bobby, you hit that nail on the head," 
 said his father. 
 
 Cat's-cradle in silence for ten seconds. 
 
 "Papa," said Bobby, "do you really wish Mrs. 
 Ellerslie was Mamma?" 
 
 "Don't ask silly questions, Bobby," said his mother, 
 serenely. Mrs. Dunn was not of a jealous tempera- 
 ment, as has been stated before. 
 
 "Well, they talk about it out walking," said Bobby. 
 " I like to go walking here. Every one talks so funny.
 
 AND SO FORTH 177 
 
 When we sit down Mrs. Ellerslie always says 'Keep 
 to your own tree/ just like Pussy-in-the-corner." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn glanced at her husband. 
 
 Dunn's back was most emphatically towards his 
 wife. She wondered what Bobby's papa was going 
 to say to what Bobby had just said. But Bobby's 
 papa said nothing at all. Bobby's papa was n't sure 
 if he said anything to Bobby what Bobby might 
 answer, so Bobby's papa kept still. 
 
 Mrs. Dunn continued to look at her husband, until 
 all of a sudden she realized what she was doing and 
 how long she had been doing it. Then she turned her 
 eyes quickly away. "How silly of me !" she thought, 
 quite ashamed of herself. "Why, I'm never silly." 
 
 And she spoke the truth. 
 
 12
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE OVERTURNING WORM 
 
 "I'M so mad," said Belden, savagely, as he tramped 
 southeast through the dead leaves, with Grace follow- 
 ing him. "Oh, I'm mad! I don't believe I've been 
 as mad in years as I am right now." 
 
 "Do look out," Grace pleaded; "there are little 
 young evergreens planted all over here. You'll 
 break them." 
 
 "I don't care what I break," said Belden. "I wish 
 I had a big knotted stick and could brain Ellerslie 
 with a swing to the right and his wife with a swing 
 to the left. Then maybe we'd have some peace on 
 earth and good- will here in Dichtenberg." 
 
 "Do be careful of the little evergreens," the girl 
 implored. 
 
 "I wonder," said Belden, stopping short and look- 
 ing her directly in the face, "I wonder if you're 
 going to be just like other women when you marry. 
 Shall you be a good wife and mother and just as 
 conscientiously plain as you can possibly manage, 
 like Dunn's wife, or shall you go for other men and 
 go for other women, like Nellie Ellerslie? I wonder!"
 
 THE OVERTURNING WORM 179 
 
 "I don't know," said the girl. For a minute 
 her face was downcast and hesitating; then sud- 
 denly she raised her eyes to his, and hi them was 
 that bursting forth of light which presages the change 
 from girlhood's dawn to woman's sunrise. "I don't 
 know," she repeated, "truly I don't; nobody ever 
 knows just what they are growing into, but don't 
 you think I 'm getting some big lessons these days?" 
 
 "But are you taking them to heart?" said the 
 man. "Are they just amusing you, or are they sink- 
 ing in deep? Tell me." There was a tremendous 
 call of frankness and to frankness hi his voice. 
 
 She returned his look with an equal sincerity. 
 " I 'm trying," she said, and said no more. 
 
 They went on, and there was silence a si- 
 lence that lasted until suddenly the man broke 
 forth again. "I never supposed that I had such a 
 temper as I find I 've got right now. I 'd like to 
 know whether in God's eyes there 's any worth at 
 all hi the love that leaves a woman wild for the 
 attention of other men." 
 
 "But he 's quite as anxious for the attentions of 
 women as she is for men," observed the girl, quietly. 
 
 Belden stopped and looked at her in startled 
 wonder. He had n't expected that speech from her 
 lips. "What, have you noticed?" he said. 
 
 "Yes, I 've noticed." 
 
 Belden saw that she had a lot to her that he had
 
 180 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 never suspected; it made him wonder how much 
 more worldly wisdom she might be holding back. 
 There was silence for a little. 
 
 "Shall we go up to the castle and see the well?" 
 Grace asked finally. "There's still over an hour 
 before lunch, and Mrs. Dunn would be so pleased if 
 anybody took an interest." 
 
 "I don't believe that it's worth the trouble." 
 Belden felt his own bad temper keenly. 
 
 "Oh, but please," she pleaded. 
 
 "Well, if you want to," he said, somewhat 
 ashamed. 
 
 They turned up the path, and as they turned a little 
 fawn appeared a half-dozen rods above and halted 
 and looked at them not exactly in fear, rather in 
 startled curiosity. Grace suddenly laid her hand on 
 Belden's in speechless behest against movement, and 
 his fingers closed over hers. It was a strange minute, 
 for neither seemed to just realize anything except that 
 they stood still until the pretty little creature had 
 finished its scrutiny and trotted daintily on. Then 
 the girl blushed her deepest, most vivid blush, and 
 withdrew her fingers from his. He let them go 
 unwillingly, but he let them go. 
 
 "Life hi the woods is very good," she said, quickly, 
 painfully, feeling the need of speech and not know- 
 ing what to say. " It it always it always seems 
 to me that human passions are out of place here.
 
 THE OVERTURNING WORM 181 
 
 The trees are so big and quiet, and everything else is 
 so hushed and reverent." 
 
 He looked down sideways at her face. "You only 
 dream that," he said; "why, the woods fairly reek 
 with passions. Foxes are thieves and all animals 
 murder to live. Ellerslie himself is n't more ready to 
 gore a rival than the stags are. The woods are no 
 heaven, sad as it is to know it." 
 
 She looked at him piteously then, and was silent. 
 
 "Oh, but I've a beastly temper," he said after 
 a minute more, real sorrow ringing in his voice. 
 "You '11 have no more good opinion of me after to- 
 day. But I don't care, I don't want you to think 
 I 'm better than I am. And if you ever marry, your 
 life may go the better for to-day. Why, Mrs. Ellers- 
 lie knows that I don't love her. She knows that I 
 never have loved her. She 's never been my ideal, 
 not for one minute. Women who keep their hus- 
 bands keyed up to the mark by feeding them other 
 men never are my ideal. But when no one else is 
 about I 've often come in very handy, and so she 's 
 gone on playing I 'm crazy about her until now she 
 really believes it." 
 
 "Believes you 're in love with her!" Grace's eyes 
 were appalled. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "But how can she think that when she knows that 
 you aren't?"
 
 182 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 " She does n't think it ; she makes herself believe it." 
 
 "I don't just understand." 
 
 "No, of course not. But I'll tell you what you 
 can do and what you 've got to do ; you 've got to 
 look out, for she '11 lie to you good and plenty about 
 me from now on." 
 
 "About you?" 
 
 "And about us all." 
 
 "Oh!" 
 
 They came to the top of the hill. "If you really 
 want to see the well, you '11 have to wait here," 
 Belden said. 
 
 "I should like to see it." 
 
 "Well, then, just wait a minute and I '11 go down 
 and get the man and the key." He smiled as he 
 spoke, and she smiled back ; then he turned and went 
 down through the old Zwinger to the Gasthof. 
 
 Grace stood still where he left her at the parting 
 of the ways. She was standing at the parting of 
 more ways than one just then, and was possibly sub- 
 conscious of the fact. At any rate, her face wore a 
 look of sweetly troubled earnestness that was very, 
 very attractive, and her white hands hung loosely 
 clasped before her hi an attitude of half appeal and 
 half restraint from that same appeal. Over her head 
 there bowed one great sweeping tree branch, the 
 leaves of which were ever so slightly touched with 
 gold; a touch equally light and equally bright was
 
 THE OVERTURNING WORM 183 
 
 glinting among the tender verdancy of her girlish 
 thoughts. Belden was out of sight now and she was 
 quite alone. She breathed a little quickly, thinking 
 over all the tumult all the rough turning up of the 
 heavy unsightly clods of masculine human nature she 
 had just witnessed. It had n't been pretty to see nor 
 pleasant to hear, but wasn't it better so perhaps? 
 He had thought so evidently. 
 
 "Perhaps it will all teach us me how to do 
 better," she thought, blushing her quick blush over 
 the mistaken plural. Then the white hands clasped 
 one another suddenly, closely, firmly. "Oh, God, let 
 it teach me better," she prayed; "I want to do 
 better. I truly want to do better. I don't want to 
 be as other women are after they marry. I want to 
 be better." 
 
 Something made her turn her head quickly as her 
 little prayer ended. And there behind her, in the 
 very way over which Barbarossa had ridden in tri- 
 umph, stood the little fawn. It must have been hid- 
 ing in the bushes, peeping forth when it felt it 
 possible to satisfy its young desire to know more. 
 Such a delicate, lovely little form, such large, soft, 
 luminous eyes. It looked at the girl and the girl 
 looked back; in motionless silence they stood thus 
 gazing plenteously upon each other's wonder. 
 
 " It 's like the spirit of gentleness and tenderness 
 made real," Grace said to herself. " It 's as if, in
 
 184 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 the minute of my prayer, God sent a living answer 
 across my path. I '11 take it as an omen ; life is 
 good, people are good, the woods are very good." 
 Then she smiled. "And I '11 be good, too." 
 
 Apparently satisfied with its intuitive insight into 
 her conclusions, the little wild thing raised its head a 
 bit and tap-tap-tapped away over the dry leaves. 
 
 The minute after, Belden returned. 
 
 "The man 's coming up with the key and a lan- 
 tern," he said. 
 
 " A lantern at noon ! " 
 
 "He said a lantern, and he must know. Come, 
 I 'm completely over my temper now, and so ter- 
 ribly sorry; please forgive me and forget and come 
 on." He smiled at her again, this time most good- 
 humoredly. "You do forgive me, don't you?" he 
 asked. 
 
 "Why, yes, of course," she said, and then quickly, 
 hurriedly: "Oh, there 's a rabbit!" 
 
 The Wirt overtook them at the top, greeted them, 
 set his lantern down, and unlocked the door. He 
 entered and they entered, and all that they saw at 
 first was a wooden well-curb rigged with a rope 
 and iron windlass. 
 
 "I must light the lantern," said the German, hi his 
 own tongue; "please close the door." 
 
 Belden closed the door, and then he and Grace 
 stood side by side leaning over the blackness and
 
 THE OVERTURNING WORM 185 
 
 looking downward. Both were thrilled through and 
 through, not altogether by the well, perhaps some- 
 what by the just-seen rabbit. 
 
 "I can't see a thing," said Belden, softly, "can 
 you?" 
 
 " I believe I see the reflection way, way down there, 
 but I don't know," said Grace, softly also. 
 
 Both were very busy thinking. 
 
 The Wirt had lit the lantern by this time and hung 
 it to a wire which depended from another and smaller 
 windlass over against the wall. 
 
 "Oh, he's going to lower it into the well," said 
 the girl, feeling it necessary to say something. 
 
 " Yes," said Belden, moving closer to her. 
 
 All three leaned over the curb as the man swung 
 the light free and let it begin its descent into the 
 darkness. 
 
 "There is some new stonework first," he said, in 
 German, "but watch! there, now the old begins." 
 
 Grace was breathless with interest, or perhaps she 
 did n't know what she was breathless about. The 
 lantern, going down, down, down, ever encircled by 
 its own illumination, showed course after course of 
 rock laid up to form a square with rounded corners. 
 
 "Who dug this well?" Belden asked, reaching for 
 her hand 
 
 "No one knows," said the Wirt. 
 
 The weirdness deepened each minute. The lantern
 
 186 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 was always descending, descending, and the arc of 
 illumination seemed to gather intensity as it grew 
 smaller. As they watched it, his hold on Grace 
 tightened. To the end of their life they were to 
 remember the well in Schloss Dichtenberg. 
 
 "Watch now," said the man; "the secret passage 
 begins now!" 
 
 "The secret passage!" Belden exclaimed incred- 
 ulously, "a secret passage in the well?" He drew 
 her closer. She let him; the secret passage seemed 
 to make it all right somehow. 
 
 "Yes," said the man; "when the castle could not 
 be held against the enemy they used to jump into 
 the well and escape through the secret passages." 
 
 "How simple!" murmured Belden. "I wonder I 
 did n't think of it myself." He pressed her hand hard. 
 
 She hung over the curb, more breathless than ever. 
 And yet there were no rabbits to see. 
 
 "By the arching," the man explained, staying 
 the progress of the lantern and swinging it near the 
 sides. " It 's there by the arches the secret pas- 
 sages; one ran towards Goslar and one towards 
 Hildesheim." 
 
 "It says in the book that tradition told of an un- 
 derground way to Asseburg," said Grace; she could 
 hardly breathe. 
 
 "The well was not cleaned out when the book was 
 written," said the man, letting the lantern loose again.
 
 THE OVERTURNING WORM 187 
 
 " Asseburg lies towards Goslar, so the old tale is proved 
 true." 
 
 "Ah, but I 've read something about the castle well 
 in the castle book/' Belden exclaimed suddenly; "it 
 says that once upon a time the women hi the castle 
 took fright during a siege and all jumped into the 
 well." He pressed her hand harder. 
 
 "But, it says they threw mattresses in first," Grace 
 interrupted, trying to free herself. She was begin- 
 ning to be painfully conscious now that he "ought 
 not to." 
 
 "Yes, but it couldn't have been true, anyway." 
 Belden was very firm. 
 
 " Perhaps they went down in the bucket," said the 
 Wirt. 
 
 "Fancy going down there." Belden felt her shud- 
 der. "Fancy being lowered all this time with these 
 slimy walls getting littler and littler about you!" 
 She was pulling all the time. 
 
 " Fancy having to trust men who could n't get out 
 of the castle alive to lower you to that passage," said 
 Belden, "and to think they leaned right here and 
 watched them go down right there. Ugh!" He re- 
 mained firm. 
 
 " It 's beginning to get horrible to me," said Grace ; 
 "will the lantern ever get to the bottom?" 
 
 "It has to go quite three hundred feet, you 
 know."
 
 188 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "That isn't far on the level, but here oh 
 dear!" 
 
 "He lets it down slowly; that 's part of the game," 
 said Belden, pressing her hand soothingly. He still 
 held it. 
 
 "Perhaps that rope would hurt his fingers, too, 
 if it ran through fast," she suggested, struggling 
 less. 
 
 Then there was silence until the light, looking very 
 small indeed, paused at last. 
 
 "Now listen," said the Wirt, and scooped some 
 water out of the well bucket hanging by his side. 
 It fell noiselessly. 
 
 " Listen ! " he said again. 
 
 And there came then, far, far below, the sound of a 
 faint splash. 
 
 "Oh!" Grace cried, "it frightens me. I feel ill. 
 Let 's go out. I 'm getting too near the Middle 
 Ages." 
 
 Belden loosed her hand, feed the man, and they 
 left him to wind up the bucket alone. "You're 
 really pale," he said, looking at her, when they 
 reached the outside. "Did it make you feel as 
 badly as that?" 
 
 "Oh, it made me feel ill all through." She avoided 
 his eyes carefully. "It made me wonder who had 
 been thrown down there." 
 
 "There were plenty of rough wild times around this
 
 THE OVERTURNING WORM 189 
 
 old castle, I fancy," said Belden, carelessly; "it 
 seems a strange civilization that got the ruler his 
 living by farming out his lands and his people to any 
 one who was willing to squeeze all the gold he could 
 out of them, by fair means or foul mainly by 
 foul." He was carefully commonplace. 
 
 "It was awful," said Grace. She could not look at 
 him, but she knew that he was looking at her. "We 
 must hurry down to dinner," she exclaimed. 
 
 "Oh, must we?" said the man. "I don't want to 
 one bit. Let 's go to Salder !" 
 
 Grace laughed. " Oh, we could n't do that ! " 
 
 "I don't know why not." 
 
 " Oh, it would n't do at all. What would Cousin 
 Lizzie and every one say?" 
 
 "Married people don't appreciate their advan- 
 tages," said Belden, with great decision. "They can 
 do anything they please, and no one says a thing. I 
 mean to get married myself some day, just so that I 
 can do as I please." 
 
 Grace said nothing; she was deepest crimson. 
 
 "WTiat do you think of the idea?" 
 
 "Of what idea?" 
 
 "Of my getting married?" 
 
 "Oh oh I don't know, I 'm sure." 
 
 "Don't you think it would be " 
 
 "Oh," said the girl, desperately, "oh, there is a 
 rabbit!"
 
 190 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "It isn't, either," said Belden; "it 's a hen!" 
 "Oh, is it?" said she, greatly relieved. "It it 
 
 looked so like a rabbit to me." 
 It was so good to be out of that dark place and 
 
 back in the world of rabbits.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 MRS. ELLERSLIE'S SIDE OF IT 
 
 MRS. ELLERSLIE did not come to dinner that day. 
 
 "Is Nellie feeling badly?" Mrs. Dunn asked, with 
 as much friendly curiosity as if she did n't know any 
 more than any one ever supposed that she did. 
 
 "She's used up by last night," said Ellerslie, 
 uneasily. " I wanted her to stay in bed this morning, 
 but she would go out to walk and it was too much 
 for her. She 's in bed now." 
 
 He did n't suppose that Dunn and his wife knew 
 anything about the scene hi the woods, but Grace 
 had gotten back in time to tell Mrs. Dunn, and Mrs. 
 Dunn had immediately told her husband. The effect 
 had been to cause Mrs. Dunn to consider Mrs. Ellers- 
 lie sillier than ever, but her husband had thought that 
 there were probably two sides to the story. "There 
 are always two sides to every story concerning a 
 pretty woman," Dunn had said, and his wife, who, 
 in spite of her kindly disposition, was very tired of 
 hearing her friend called a pretty woman in every 
 marital conversation, had merely reserved her own 
 opinion of how much men in general knew.
 
 192 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "Where did you go?" Dunn asked Belden, with a 
 vague feeling that it would look too pointed if he 
 asked Ellerslie where they had gone. 
 
 "We went up and saw the well at the castle." 
 
 "Oh! Interesting?" 
 
 "Very." 
 
 "Why didn't you tell us?" said Mrs. Dunn. 
 "We 'd have gone, too; I want Bobby to see that." 
 
 "But I did ask you," said Belden. "Don't you 
 remember?" 
 
 "To-day is the twentieth," Ellerslie remarked. 
 "We '11 be leaving soon." 
 
 The atmosphere at the table bounded upward. 
 
 "Oh, shall you?" said Mrs. Dunn, with the good 
 intention of sounding regretful, and totally unaware 
 of the radiance in her eyes. "Must you go so 
 soon?" 
 
 "Nellie wants to get to Paris and get her things 
 in order before winter." 
 
 "Mrs. Ellerslie has such lovely taste," said Grace, 
 meaning to help out with any scraps she had in 
 hand. 
 
 Dunn did not see what would furnish salt for his 
 palate hereafter. "It seems too bad to leave the 
 country when it 's so fine," he said. Internally he 
 registered a resolution to try and be so interesting 
 that Mrs. Ellerslie would tarry longer hi Dichtenberg 
 just because well, because.
 
 MRS. ELLERSLIE'S SIDE OF IT 193 
 
 But Mrs. Dunn had no desire to cause her friend 
 to delay her departure. That little phrase so inno- 
 cently repeated by Bobby, "Keep to your own tree," 
 had found a nesting-place even in her non-sensitive 
 heart. She wanted Nellie to go. 
 
 "I suppose that the best of the weather is over 
 now," she said, with great sincerity, "and Nellie 
 takes cold so easily." 
 
 "Yes, she 's very delicate," said her husband. He 
 helped himself to all the carrots that were left as he 
 spoke not because he liked carrots, but because he 
 had noticed that Will Belden did. 
 
 "What was the well like?" Dunn asked. His 
 voice sounded a bit strained, for he was fond of 
 carrots, too. 
 
 "Oh, it was so deep," Grace said; "the man let 
 a lantern down and showed us where the secret pas- 
 sages began." 
 
 "I'll go up there right after dinner," said El- 
 lerslie; "how much did you give him for show- 
 ing it?" 
 
 "I gave him a Mark" 
 
 " He 'd have been satisfied with half that." 
 
 "Perhaps, but I shouldn't have been satisfied 
 with giving him half that." 
 
 "Do have some more beans," urged Mrs. Dunn. 
 
 "I meant to make a lot of expeditions from here," 
 said Ellerslie, refusing the beans by merely shaking 
 
 13
 
 194 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 his head. "I'd thought we'd make some all-day 
 tours. Of course I did n't know Bobby was coming." 
 
 "Nellie couldn't stand all-day tours," said Mrs. 
 Dunn, keeping Bobby still with her hand under the 
 table; "they 'd wear her out." 
 
 " I think they 're pretty hard," said Grace, so glad 
 the Ellerslies were thinking of going that she hardly 
 knew what she said. "One has to carry so much." 
 
 "I never carry anything," said Ellerslie. 
 
 "Who does the carrying then your wife?" asked 
 Belden. Mrs. Dunn tried to touch him with her foot 
 and touched Dunn by mistake. 
 
 "I didn't say anything," said that gentleman. 
 
 "I think Nellie 's feeling better," said Mrs. Dunn. 
 "I think I hear her overhead." 
 
 In fact Mrs. Ellerslie could be plainly heard running 
 back and forth between the cold cream and the 
 mirror. 
 
 "Yes, I hear her," said her husband; "she must 
 be getting up, and, by the way," to Mrs. Dunn, "she 
 wants you to come to her room after you 've finished 
 dinner. She 's got something particular to tell you, 
 she says. You can go, can't you?" 
 
 "Yes, of course," said Mrs. Dunn, "I'll go at 
 once. Oh, I do hope she '11 be well enough to get 
 out to walk after tea !" 
 
 "Yes," said Dunn, dryly, "any one has a dull life 
 who can't get out to walk here." Then he won-
 
 MRS. ELLERSLIE'S SIDE OF IT 195 
 
 dered if Mrs. Ellerslie would walk with him. "Why 
 don't you and Belden go to Salder?" he suggested 
 forthwith. 
 
 "Why under the sun should Mrs. Dunn and I walk 
 to Salder?" asked Belden. 
 
 "The walks here are so lovely," said Grace, hur- 
 riedly; "now the leaves are falling it 's so nice. And 
 we saw a little fawn this morning." 
 
 "Oh, did you? "said Bobby. "Where? Oh, Papa, 
 won't you make me a sling-shot?" 
 
 "I wonder what the law about game is here?" 
 said Dunn, feeling unhappy over Salder. 
 
 "The Head Forester controls it all," said Belden; 
 "but I guess he won't mind Bobby's bringing down 
 what he can with a sling-shot." 
 
 "But I killed a bird once, didn't I, Papa?" said 
 Bobby, eagerly. " I hit him right in the head, did n't 
 I, in the eye?" 
 
 "Did he really kill a bird?" said Ellerslie, looking 
 upon Bobby in a spirit of manifest incredulity. 
 
 "Yes, indeed he did," said Mrs. Dunn, who was 
 plenty bright enough to note Ellerslie's standpoint; 
 " and it was n't surprising, either, for if a stone from 
 one of those sling-shots hits a bird, it 's bound to 
 kill it. What we always thought was surprising, 
 though, was that he hit the bird right in the eye." 
 
 "I didn't know there was a bird in the tree at 
 all," said Bobby, hurrying to line up abreast of his
 
 196 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 mother's defense. "I was just trying my sling, and 
 he fell right on to me, and my sailor suit had to all 
 go in the wash, didn't it, Mamma?" 
 
 "Pass me the cucumbers, please," said Ellerslie, 
 more heartily glad than ever that he had no small boy 
 of his own. "How deep was the well?" 
 
 "Three hundred feet," said Belden; "it's really 
 worth seeing." 
 
 "And you gave him a Mark, you say?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Ha!" 
 
 Then that topic of conversation was ended. 
 
 When dinner was over Mrs. Dunn went at once to 
 her friend. She found Nellie Ellerslie lying up against 
 the pillow looking like a twentieth-century Madonna, 
 with her wonderful hair parted and flowing off north- 
 west and southeast in two great braids, each tied 
 with a huge pink bow. She had on a frilled gown and 
 all her rings, and her cheeks were beautifully pink, 
 partly with tears and partly with rouge. She was 
 polishing her nails. 
 
 " Oh, I 'm so glad to see you," she exclaimed, 
 smiling so that her pearly teeth shone like diamonds ; 
 "come in quick and shut the door. I wouldn't 
 have Will or your husband catch a glimpse of me 
 like this for anything, you know." 
 
 "Why, I think you look very nice," said Mrs. Dunn, 
 reassuringly.
 
 MRS. ELLERSLIE'S SIDE OF IT 197 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie smiled, thinking how eminently her 
 friend was intended for just the humdrum, maid-of- 
 all-work niche in life into which she had fallen. " Sit 
 down on the side of the bed," she said. "It 's lots 
 more comfortable than those chairs you bought us. 
 I 'd offer you a pillow, only I have them both behind 
 me." 
 
 "Oh, I don't want a pillow," said Mrs. Dunn, sit- 
 ting on the side of the bed. 
 
 "My dear, I must tell you," polishing vigorously, 
 "the most awful scene this morning! Has any one 
 told you?" 
 
 "No," said Mrs. Dunn; "what is it?" 
 
 "Has n't any one told you a thing? Did n't Grace 
 Waters say anything?" 
 
 " No ; what is it? " Mrs. Dunn was feminine enough 
 to be very curious to hear her friend's side of the 
 story. "Do tell me all about it." 
 
 "Just get me the rosaline, on the washstand, will 
 you, dear? A woman is so helpless when she 's in 
 bed. Dear me, I don't know where to begin, really 
 I don't ; but there 's one thing you surely must have 
 seen all along, and that 's what a truly awful time 
 I 've been having here." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn tried to look all-wise and only succeeded 
 in looking nonplussed. 
 
 "Of course you 've noticed?" 
 
 Mrs. Dunn could think of nothing better to do
 
 198 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 than to nod her head. Evidently the gods who guard 
 the simple-minded were close to her at that instant, 
 for Mrs. Ellerslie radiated joy at the response she 
 received. 
 
 " Yes, I knew you 'd surely see ; but, my dear, 
 what could I do ! I 've had such a terrible time, 
 a really terrible time, trying to keep Will in order, 
 and I think that I 've managed so that the others 
 have n't noticed anything, but I knew you 'd 
 see." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn nodded again. Mrs. Ellerslie redoubled 
 her polishing vigor. 
 
 "Oh, my dear, Frank has been so jealous of my 
 every word and look, and Will 's such a jealous nature, 
 too you know that. I 've been at my wits' end to 
 keep peace between them. I 'm surprised that every 
 one has n't noticed how fearfully hard I 've had to 
 work." 
 
 " I 'm so busy always," said Mrs. Dunn, apologet- 
 ically, quite forgetting the sapiency she had assumed, 
 "and it takes me so much time to " 
 
 "Yes, well, it's been terrible." Mrs. Ellerslie ap- 
 peared quite oblivious to all but her own tale. "But, 
 my dear, to-day ! Well ! You see, I managed to keep 
 all smooth till this morning, and this morning," she 
 paused suddenly, "don't you really know anything 
 about this morning?" she asked. 
 
 "I know that you all went to walk together."
 
 MRS. ELLERSLIE'S SIDE OF IT 199 
 
 " Oh, my dear, if that were all ! Oh, if that were 
 only all ! Why, do you know as soon as he laid eyes 
 on me out there in the hall, Will just went sort of 
 mad he always has liked me in a shirt-waist, you 
 know and he fairly grabbed my arm, my arm, my 
 dear, and right before Frank, and rushed me off with 
 him. He was so quick I hardly knew what he was 
 doing until it was all done, and then it was impos- 
 sible to say anything without making a scene, and I 
 so hate scenes ! My one aim in life is to try and avoid 
 scenes, but, really, it was one of the most frightful 
 dilemmas that I 've ever been in." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn tried to look sympathetic. "Where was 
 Frank?" she asked. 
 
 "Following with Grace. Only Will dragged me up 
 the hill so fast that we were soon out of their sight. 
 I did n't know what to say, and don't ask me what 
 he said, I don't want to remember, but anyhow 
 finally I just deliberately pulled my arm away and 
 turned and ran back to Frank as fast as I could. 
 There ! What do you think of that?" 
 
 Mrs. Dunn did n't believe a word of any of it, but 
 did n't consider it polite to say so. " What did Frank 
 say?" she asked, trying not to yawn. 
 
 " Oh, my dear, you can think what any man would 
 say under those circumstances! At first he was fu- 
 rious, simply furious, and talked about shooting Will 
 at sight. You can think how that frightened me, for
 
 200 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 it would be just like him to do something like that. 
 Tell me, how did they get on at dinner? I 've been 
 lying here praying." 
 
 "Oh, they got on all right/' said Mrs. Dunn. 
 
 "Did they? I 'm so glad. I should have hated to 
 have anything really tragic occur here. But you 
 know what two men over one woman always are! 
 And I 'm so tired of always being the one woman." 
 
 She held her hands off and looked at her nails with 
 careful scrutiny. Mrs. Dunn yawned outright now. 
 
 "Did Will and that girl walk far?" Mrs. Ellerslie 
 asked, evidently considering the shooting episode 
 over. 
 
 "They went up to the castle and saw the well." 
 
 "Do you think he really cares for her at all?" 
 
 This hung in so oddly with the foregoing that even 
 Mrs. Dunn had hard work bearing it. "I don't 
 know, I 'm sure," she said, with care. 
 
 " I don't believe she 'd make him very happy. His 
 taste runs to brilliant women more." 
 
 "But has he ever known many?" 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie shot a sharp glance over the horizon 
 of the nail-polishing. "A good many/' she said, 
 "you and me, anyway. Do hand me the mirror, 
 dear." 
 
 "I don't call myself a brilliant woman," said Mrs. 
 Dunn, handing the mirror; "I'm useful, but not 
 brilliant."
 
 MRS. ELLERSLIE'S SIDE OF IT 201 
 
 "Well, dear," said her friend, kindly, "being use- 
 ful has its place in this world, just as much as being 
 brilliant. Think how much you manage to do for 
 us all!" 
 
 "Yes, I do manage to do a great deal," said Mrs. 
 Dunn, thoughtfully, "there 's so much that some one 
 has to do to keep life going smoothly in a place like 
 this." 
 
 "And even then it doesn't go any too smoothly, 
 does it?" said Mrs. Ellerslie. "I don't believe that 
 you and I are ever going to look back on this fort- 
 night with any special pleasure. And, as to that 
 Burgverliess " 
 
 "That was awful," said Mrs. Dunn. 
 
 "That was the experience of my life. I 'd rather 
 have Frank shoot any one on my account and then 
 stand the scene after, than ever get in a hole like 
 that again. I don't know what I 'd have done with- 
 out your cape. I 'd have frozen ! As it was, I Ve 
 never been so miserable in my life." 
 
 They had evidently hit on a subject now which 
 did interest Mrs. Dunn. " I '11 never forget how I 
 felt when I saw it beginning to get dark and 
 found I could n't make any more sounds with my 
 throat," she said, with deep sincerity ringing in her 
 tone. 
 
 "Wasn't it frightful? I '11 never forget yesterday 
 afternoon as long as I live."
 
 202 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "I was afraid there might come rats in the 
 night." 
 
 "Oh !" Mrs. Ellerslie gave a little cry. "That re- 
 minds me; I knew I had something to tell you that 
 was really important. There was a mouse in this 
 room last night ! " 
 
 "Not really?" 
 
 "Yes, indeed. He crawled all over the door and 
 gnawed the panels." 
 
 "Crawled all over the door!" 
 
 "Look, you can see where he gnawed." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn got up at once and went and looked at 
 the door. "How did he ever hold on?" she asked, 
 in great amazement. 
 
 " I don't know, I 'm sure. Such an acrobatic 
 mouse! Well, what are you going to do about it, 
 dear?" 
 
 "I'll have to get them to set a mouse-trap, of 
 course; do you suppose he 's still in the room?" 
 
 " I suppose so. It is n't the least of my trials to 
 think so. Why don't you ring and get the trap right 
 now, Lizzie? You may forget it later, you know." 
 
 " Yes, I guess I '11 go down and ask about it." She 
 rubbed her forehead wearily. "Frank said at dinner 
 that you were going in a few days; did he mean it?" 
 
 "Don't ask me what Frank means, my dear; his 
 meanings are much too much for me. But if he 
 wants to go, I '11 be only too delighted, I 'm sure."
 
 MRS. ELLERSLIE'S SIDE OF IT 203 
 
 " Has n't he said anything to you about it?" 
 
 "No, he hasn't said anything to me except about 
 Will Belden for weeks. Frank 's an ogre." 
 
 The ogre tapped at the door just then. 
 
 "See who it is, Lizzie." 
 
 " Me," cried the ogre's voice. 
 
 " Oh, come in, love." 
 
 The door opened, and Ellerslie flew to his wife's 
 outstretched arms. 
 
 "I'm going to see what Bobby's doing," said 
 Mrs. Dunn, hurriedly. She shared Belden's views as 
 to the Ellerslie love-making and quarreling, but 
 justice caused her to admit that they were on their 
 own ground now. 
 
 "Don't forget the mouse-trap," Mrs. Ellerslie called 
 out from under the shadow of her husband's over- 
 hanging moustache; "remember." 
 
 "I won't forget," said Mrs. Dunn. She was now 
 shutting the door. 
 
 "Well, I broke our departure to them," Ellerslie 
 said, when they were alone. 
 
 "Did oo, sweetheart?" Mrs. Ellerslie replied. 
 
 "Yes, just as you bade me, lovey-dovey-mine." 
 
 "You old sweetness," said his wife. "Frank, 
 there 's no use talking, you 're the greatest darling 
 alive. Oh, I '11 be so glad to get away from this deadly 
 place, and Lizzie's everlasting fault-finding with 
 everything and everybody."
 
 204 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "Does she find fault? " said Ellerslie, who was de- 
 vouring his beautiful wife with hungry eyes. "But, 
 pet, think how homely she is and be merciful." 
 
 " I know, I try to bear it all. But I 'm so tired of 
 her and her stupid husband and that nuisance of a 
 child ! I want to go !" 
 
 "Does her want to go?" said Ellerslie. "Well, if 
 her wants to go her just shall go wite straight off. 
 Her Great Scott!" he cried, sharply, "what do 
 you mean by sticking a pin in hi front like that? 
 Look at my hand !" 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie, having full faith in her own true 
 and tried brand of rouge, promptly burst into 
 tears 
 
 "Frank Ellerslie, you'll drive me to my grave," 
 she sobbed. "I try to be patient, and I try to look 
 pretty, and you know how I spent yesterday in that 
 dungeon, and I was up all night with the mouse, and 
 now and now you you you sc- sc- scold 
 me." 
 
 "Where's some court-plaster?" Ellerslie asked, 
 sharply. 
 
 "We haven't got any. Go and get Lizzie's," 
 said his wife, her face buried in the pillow. 
 
 Ellerslie went at once. " Have you got any court- 
 plaster?" he asked of Mrs. Dunn, carefully keeping 
 his left hand hi his pocket. "Nell has jabbed herself 
 with the manicure scissors."
 
 MRS. ELLERSLIE'S SIDE OF IT 205 
 
 "Here's some," said the useful lady, rushing to 
 her wash-stand drawer; "how big a piece?" 
 
 "I 'd better cut it," said Ellerslie, his fingers clos- 
 ing promptly on the case. 
 
 Mrs. Dunn smiled a little sadly as the court-plaster 
 followed so many other little conveniences of her pur- 
 chasing into the room across the way. 
 
 A few minutes later Ellerslie returned to say that 
 his wife was feeling so badly that neither he nor she 
 would go to walk. Mrs. Dunn had just gotten the 
 mouse-trap and Bobby was looking at it with wonder- 
 ing eyes. It was two feet tall and contained a cistern 
 in which to drown mice after catching them and a 
 window up-stairs for free ventilation. 
 
 "You can take it back into your room with you," 
 Mrs. Dunn suggested to Ellerslie. 
 
 Ellerslie took the mouse-trap. "I don't believe 
 there 's a mouse in the room at all," he said, as he 
 retired. 
 
 "He doesn't even like to catch mice, does he, 
 Papa?" Bobby observed. 
 
 "Hush, Bobby, you mustn't criticise," said his 
 mother. 
 
 "What 's that, Mamma?" 
 
 " It means you must n't talk about people." 
 
 "Why must n't I? Everybody else does, and why 
 mustn't I?" 
 
 Mrs. Dunn looked hopelessly at her husband and
 
 206 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 was just going to say something when a frightful 
 crash followed by a piercing shriek came from the 
 room opposite. 
 
 To make a long tale short, Ellerslie had found 
 the mouse asleep in his dressing-gown pocket, and 
 the frightened creature had jumped right over Mrs. 
 Ellerslie in making its escape.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE FATAL DAY 
 
 THE next morning it was Belden and Grace who 
 got up betimes and went out to walk without saying 
 anything to anybody. In so doing they committed a 
 grave fault an even greater fault than Dunn and 
 Mrs. Ellerslie had perpetrated hi hieing themselves off 
 to Hildesheim, or than the two Ellerslies had been 
 guilty of hi visiting Salder without any previous an- 
 nouncement. The beauty of small parties together in 
 some lonesome spot is that invariably each member 
 of the select gathering develops all his or her sharp 
 corners and sensitive spots unto their utmost limit 
 of sharpness and sensitiveness, so that by the end of 
 the first week hardly any one can do anything with- 
 out either pricking, prodding, goading, galling, slam- 
 ming, criticising, or cruelly wounding one or more of 
 the rest, if not all of them together. 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie thought that Will should have walked 
 with her, as she had something important to talk 
 over with him and had sent him a note to that effect 
 that very morning. She had n't quite decided what 
 the important something should be, but she had had
 
 208 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 her door locked for nearly an hour making prepara- 
 tions for the interview, and was naturally much dis- 
 pleased when she saw the two young people pass her 
 window on their way off alone by themselves. She 
 took it very hard indeed and had a good mind to 
 change her stockings with the embroidered clocks and 
 her red-heeled patent leather ankle-ties (she had in- 
 tended climbing), and to put on her every-day black 
 silk petticoat instead of the one with the Dresden- 
 flowered flounce, but, before she could do anything, 
 her husband rapped with the peculiarly imperative 
 emphasis which being locked out of his own room 
 by his own wife sometimes induces in mere mortal 
 man. 
 
 "I can't let you in, dear." Mrs. Ellerslie cried, 
 aware of being at that minute altogether too beau- 
 tifully gotten up for even a husband not to notice the 
 special bewitchments; "you '11 have to wait." 
 
 As it was the third refusal in the hour, Ellerslie 
 concluded he might as well rebel. So he did, in 
 that especial mode which he and his wife used for 
 transacting pacific intentions among themselves. 
 
 "I don't want to come in," he cried; "I only 
 wanted to tell you that I 'm going out." 
 
 "Oh, are you?" said Mrs. Ellerslie, promptly hurt, 
 but not intending to let him know it ; "I 'm so glad. 
 Hope you '11 have a nice time." 
 
 This made Ellerslie so vexed that he decided that
 
 THE FATAL DAY 209 
 
 he really would go out, just to show her that he had 
 been telling the truth. Therefore, turning without 
 another word, he went straight into the sitting- 
 room opposite and asked Mrs. Dunn if she would n't 
 like to go out with him. 
 
 Mrs. Dunn, who was darning Bobby's stockings, 
 was quite startled and pleased. Nobody had asked 
 her to go out to walk for ever so long. And Ellerslie 
 was mad enough at his wife to be able to give the 
 invitation in a most winning manner. 
 
 "But isn't Nellie going, too?" she asked; "she 
 isn't ill, I hope?" 
 
 " Oh, no, she 's writing letters," said Ellerslie, 
 with ready inventiveness; "she doesn't want to 
 stop." 
 
 "Bob is down seeing to Bobby's donkey-wagon," 
 said Mrs. Dunn, sticking her needle in; "we can go 
 out for an hour or two without its making any dif- 
 ference to any one, I guess." Then she rolled all her 
 working implements neatly together and put them 
 away. "I wonder if I'll need a jacket beside my 
 cape or not," she said. 
 
 " It 's warm out," said Ellerslie, who did n't know 
 anything about it. 
 
 "Then I '11 take just the cape." She unhooked it 
 from the coat-rack as she spoke. "I wonder if the 
 others would go!" 
 
 "Oh, don't ask 'em," said Ellerslie. "I hate a 
 
 14
 
 210 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 crowd trailing along together and all just overhear- 
 ing enough of what one says to think they know 
 everything." 
 
 "But we must tell them," said Mrs. Dunn, but- 
 toning the cape around her neck. " I never think it 's 
 polite to go out without telling the rest." She did n't 
 mean to be pointed, but her husband's secret and 
 sudden flight to Hildesheim had rankled. 
 
 "Just as you please," said Ellerslie, indifferently; 
 he was already repenting of having invited her. 
 "I '11 tell Nell," he added. 
 
 They went out in the hall, and Mrs. Dunn went to 
 Grace's room, while Ellerslie knocked again at his 
 own door. The door flew open almost instantly this 
 time, and Mrs. Ellerslie, in an effective blue undress 
 uniform, greeted her husband effusively. She had had 
 time not only to consider, but also to change her 
 things, and was now a veritable marital dream. 
 
 " Look at me, dear ! my new lingerie ! I 've spent 
 this whole morning making myself worthy it and you ! 
 This is why you were locked out ! " 
 
 Ellerslie took one brief look, and it was veni, vidi, 
 vid, with a vengeance. He went into the room, 
 shut the door, and locked it ; he did n't want to go 
 now. "Why didn't you tell me what you were 
 doing?" he asked. "Those are those things you got 
 in Lucerne, are n't they?" 
 
 "Do be careful, dear, this fine lace tears so; I
 
 THE FATAL DAY 211 
 
 did n't want to tell you ; I wanted to surprise you." 
 She put her arms around his neck and laid her cheek 
 upon his hair; her soul was full of satisfaction over 
 thinking how poor a showing Grace Waters would 
 have made in the very same things. After all, what 
 an idiot Will Belden was! If he married that 
 girl, ten to one he never would know enough to be 
 crazy over what he had missed. It exasperated Mrs. 
 Ellerslie to think how many men there must always 
 be who never could know how pretty she was en 
 negligee. "Do you like me so, dear?" she asked; 
 "don't you think perhaps if this were shaped so " 
 
 A step sounded in the hall without. 
 
 "Oh, hang it all!" exclaimed Mrs. Ellerslie's lov- 
 ing husband, "it's that woman! I thought you 
 were asleep, and I asked her to go to walk with me, 
 and now there she is." 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie quite started. "Asked her to go to 
 walk ! Why, Frank ! Why, no one ever asks her to 
 go to walk. What possessed you?" 
 
 "I went hi there to get something and she was sit- 
 ting looking out of the window." 
 
 "Hush, she may be listening at the door." 
 
 "No, she 's gone to Belden's room. Hear her? " 
 
 Mrs. Dunn was rapping on Belden's door. 
 
 "She doesn't seem satisfied with just you," said 
 Mrs. Ellerslie, freshly tempered; "she wants Will, 
 too."
 
 212 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "It is n't that. She thought we ought to tell every 
 one." 
 
 "Oh, how funny! It takes a woman like that to 
 want to be careful not to look queer. As if any one 
 would care whom she walked with ! But why did you 
 ask her? I don't want you to go out. I want 'oo 
 'tay wite here." She nestled up against him and 
 wound one of her blue ribbon ends about his neck. 
 She did n't always want her husband around, but 
 she certainly was n't going to let him go if Lizzie 
 wanted him. No, indeed. 
 
 The blue ribbon worked like a charm. Ellerslie 
 felt terribly. He wanted to stay, too. 
 
 " I '11 say you 're ill and I must n't leave you," he 
 proposed. 
 
 " No, then she '11 think I 'm jealous. " She was rub- 
 bing her cheek against his. 
 
 "You, jealous of her!" Ellerslie's tone expressed 
 a flattering statement of the preposterousness of 
 that idea. 
 
 Now they could hear Mrs. Dunn go into her own 
 sitting-room to meekly wait till wanted. 
 
 "I don't want you to go," said Mrs. Ellerslie, tak- 
 ing her husband affectionately by his two ears; "I 
 won't let you go, either." Then she suddenly forgot 
 all of her part. "Oh, Frank, what a pity your ears 
 are so large ! It 's the one thing that keeps you from 
 being a good-looking man."
 
 THE FATAL DAY 213 
 
 Now, this was very, very unfortunate, for, as has 
 been previously stated, Ellerslie was a very hand- 
 some man and knew it, and, as has also been pre- 
 viously stated, was as quick-tempered as he was 
 good to look at. He was quite upset by this thought- 
 less speech of his wife's, and showed his change of 
 base at once. The blue get-up ceased to have any 
 effect, and he felt as anxious to go as if he had been 
 fully aware that, in spite of her brave efforts to bear 
 up, his wife was really suffering from the keenest dis- 
 appointment over not being out walking with Belden 
 that minute. It was a sad and sudden alteration all 
 around. 
 
 "I've got to go," he said, abruptly. "It isn't 
 decent to keep her waiting ahy longer. Let go my 
 ears." 
 
 "Oh, Frank, how funny that sounds! 'Let go my 
 ears,' as if your ears were miles long and I had them 
 wrapped around my hands." 
 
 This made him angrier yet. 
 
 "Now you 're mad," said his observant wife. 
 
 Of course he was very mad at that. 
 
 "I 'm not mad," he said, furiously, put her from 
 him forthwith, and left the room. 
 
 She turned and listened until she heard them both 
 go down the hall. Then she smiled and bolted the 
 door. 
 
 " Now I '11 have peace for a while," she said, being
 
 214 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 a woman who kept all her moods for others, and was 
 always singularly even-tempered and equable when 
 alone ; and she forthwith pitched herself upon the bed 
 with a French novel and prepared to be blissfully 
 happy till noon. 
 
 But the morning had been otherwise sketched by 
 Fate, and it was Dunn who came battering his way 
 up the hall ten minutes later, trying to learn who 
 was in and who was out. Mrs. Ellerslie's was the 
 first door where his batter provoked response. 
 
 "Is Bobby with you?" she cried. 
 
 "No, I'm alone." 
 
 "Oh! Oh dear! Oh, I thought Bobby was with 
 you ! " This was positively wily. 
 
 "No, I 'm alone," Dunn repeated, wiled at once. 
 
 "Oh dear. Then you can't come in." 
 
 With the closed door between them, this sounded 
 most fascinating in its innuendo. 
 
 "Where are they all?" he cried next. 
 
 "All gone to walk. All but me." Her tone was 
 pathetic. 
 
 "Why didn't you go?" 
 
 "Nobody asked me." Her tone just slightly fal- 
 tered. 
 
 Dunn felt really chivalrous and romantic over being 
 the only man who wanted her. "Won't you come out 
 with me?" he called, through the door. 
 
 "Where's Bobby?"
 
 THE FATAL DAY 215 
 
 "He 's down with the donkey; he does n't want to 
 go out this morning." 
 
 "Oh!" 
 
 Impossible to know what that meant with the 
 door forever there. 
 
 " Do come," he urged. 
 
 "I'm thinking." 
 
 He waited. She took her own time to think. 
 
 Suddenly there was a shriek, a wild shriek, from 
 within the room. 
 
 Of course upon that he flung open the door and 
 rushed to her aid. 
 
 She was all in a heap on the sofa, a blue heap. 
 
 "What is it? What is it?" He was wild to do 
 something for her. 
 
 "Oh," she screamed, "it's* the mouse! I never 
 knew he was in the trap, and he just came and looked 
 out of that little upper window in it at me! Oh 
 dear, I never got such a shock in all my life before ! 
 Oh, never, never!" 
 
 Dunn fell on his knees, at the side of the mouse- 
 trap. "Not a sound was heard not a funeral 
 note." If the mouse had not jumped out of the little 
 window, he had evidently committed suicide in the 
 cistern built for that purpose. 
 
 "He 's disposed of, anyhow," he said, reassuringly. 
 Then he rose from the floor, looked about a little 
 vaguely, and finally drew a chair to the table that
 
 216 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 stood before the sofa, and sat down there. "Poor 
 little frightened woman!" he said, at a venture, and 
 then he did n't know what to say next 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie shuddered and shuddered again. She 
 thought he ought to say something more. She waited 
 a little, and then she shuddered again. Dunn did n't 
 say anything, because he did n't know what to say. 
 She shuddered two times; it seemed to her he must 
 surely make some remark soon. And then, finally, 
 it was she herself who had to speak. 
 
 " Oh, I 'm so afraid of mice," she said, with a falter. 
 
 "Perhaps I had better carry the trap down-stairs," 
 said Dunn. It seemed to him a good way to get out 
 of the room. If all the circumstances had been dif- 
 ferent, he might have been different, too ; but he had 
 learned only too well the suddenness of a charge 
 down the bare boards of the upper hall at the Gasthof. 
 "I '11 carry it down right now," he said, promptly. 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie saw it was no use. She sat up straight 
 at once. "Yes, and I '11 change my boots and we '11 
 go out to walk, too," she said. "It 's so kind of you 
 to ask me." She was no longer surprised over his 
 having picked out Lizzie to marry. She thought 
 Lizzie was just about his caliber. 
 
 Dunn took the mouse-trap and went out. He was 
 vastly relieved when he found himself really in the 
 hall. Men are not anywhere near as fond of skimming 
 on thin ice as women choose to believe that they are.
 
 THE FATAL DAY 217 
 
 When he returned from disposing of the mouse-trap, 
 he called through the door, "I'll wait in the 
 sitting-room till you 're ready," and went in there. 
 He felt so delightfully open and aboveboard in the 
 sitting-room ; no matter who came in he could n't 
 possibly be suspected of anything if he were found 
 sitting quietly alone in the sitting-room. It was part 
 of the past few days' teaching that Dunn, who was 
 really a very decent fellow and extremely fond of 
 his own wife, was becoming as uneasy over Mrs. Ellers- 
 lie as Belden himself . A man has to be almost super- 
 naturally clever to avoid one certain approach in the 
 game of Fascination ; it is the approach of the woman 
 who does n't care what she says, not even to one's 
 wife. 
 
 Presently the door opened, and the lady entered, 
 dressed for walking. She was really as pretty as the 
 prettiest thing in walking costumes this year. Oh, 
 she was very pretty ! 
 
 "But where 's Bobby?" she said, looking around. 
 
 Poor little useful Bobby ! 
 
 "He's watching the finishing touches put on his 
 donkey-wagon; he 's settled for the morning." 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie thereupon hesitated bewitchingly, 
 and continued to hesitate and bewitch for several 
 minutes. 
 
 "I don't know just what to do," she said, finally. 
 
 "What's the matter?"
 
 218 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "I wonder whether I ought to go out, alone with 
 you, so." 
 
 "Whether you ought to go! Why, you proposed 
 going!" Dunn was openly amazed. 
 
 "Yes, but I supposed of course Bobby would go, 
 too." 
 
 "But what difference does it make?" 
 
 " Difference difference " She looked up at 
 him, and her eyelashes were almost as wonderful as 
 her beautiful eyes. " Oh, Mr. Dunn, I can trust you, 
 can't I, but you see Frank is so jealous of you !" 
 
 "Of me!" Dunn almost howled; he was very 
 greatly surprised, for his fatal attraction of Ellerslie's 
 jealousy was one of her friend's confidences which his 
 wife had not repeated to him. "Of me!" he added, 
 with fresh wonder. 
 
 "Yes, of you." She went over by the window, and 
 he thought that she was striving to conceal emotion. 
 "You know you met me when I came, and then, oh, 
 you know, ever since?" She waited by the window 
 several seconds, but he did not join her there. He 
 never thought of it 
 
 "Oh, Mr. Dunn," she said finally and waited 
 some more. If she had been a shade less lovely, she 
 had need have been a hundred times more clever, 
 but as it was, cleverness went by default. Dunn con- 
 tinued to sit in his chair. Finally she turned towards 
 him, smiling.
 
 THE FATAL DAY 219 
 
 "Well, I suppose it won't matter," she said. 
 
 " Of course it won't matter. How could it? Come 
 on; let 's go out at once." He rose briskly, for the 
 idea that Ellerslie was jealous of him was something 
 that made him feel like fresh air and plenty of it. 
 
 "Of course any one can see how interested I am 
 in all you say," Mrs. Ellerslie explained, as they 
 quitted the room, "and of course Frank has the 
 sense to perceive how much more similar your tastes 
 are to mine than his have ever been." 
 
 Dunn, who did n't know that they had ever com- 
 pared tastes, felt rather radiant over the discovery 
 that they had done so. And yet, radiant as he felt, 
 he was also suddenly conscious of a strange, woeful 
 stab. What was it? Surely not remorse, for he 
 hadn't done anything. Surely not his conscience, 
 for he was not going to do anything. And yet it 
 was a stab. 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie was running down-stairs ahead, and 
 at the turning she threw a look back to him. It 
 was a sweet look and disposed of the stab at once. 
 "I 'm so happy," she cried, gleefully. "Oh, what fun 
 we are going to have ! " 
 
 Dunn rose to that fly, and gave his moustache a 
 pull and himself a shake, and sailed in. After all, 
 what did it matter ! 
 
 "It's really our first walk alone together," he 
 said; "do you know that?"
 
 220 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "Know it!" She was fluttering down the lower 
 hall before him now; "do I know it?" 
 
 "Now, where shall we go?" he asked, as they 
 crossed the court. 
 
 'Not in the woods," she said. "I don't want 
 to meet any one, and they all go in the woods 
 always." 
 
 "Salder?" queried Dunn. 
 
 "No, not Salder; I don't want to go to Salder. 
 It would remind me of Frank, and I don't want to 
 be reminded of Frank." She turned a lovely arch 
 glance his way just here, and added: "You won't be 
 mean enough to go and remind me of Frank, will 
 you?" 
 
 "Oh, no," said Dunn, with blithe willingness to 
 promise any little favor she might ask. "But if we 
 go down the hill we '11 have to walk up it again, you 
 know." 
 
 "I don't mind. I don't mind anything. I 'm just 
 so happy this morning." 
 
 So they went down through the evergreens, and 
 the steeper and stonier portion of the hill. 
 
 "Let's go to Broistedt," Mrs. Ellerslie suggested; 
 "that will be sport." 
 
 "Well, if you want to," Dunn assented; "where is 
 it, anyway?" 
 
 "That 's it over there," indicating Reppi T with 
 her dainty hand; "it isn't far."
 
 THE FATAL DAY 221 
 
 Dunn thought it looked like a good ways, but her 
 eyelashes continued to bring down game at every 
 shot, so he did n't say so. 
 
 "I'm so happy," she said again. It seemed to 
 her that he ought to get to saying something pretty 
 soon, but Dunn was too busy wondering what he 'd 
 better say to say anything at all. He wasn't ab- 
 solutely without experience as to things to say, but 
 he did n't quite trust his companion. His wife had 
 repeated to him (in strict confidence) many things 
 that made him wonder if perhaps Mrs. Ellerslie 
 would n't tell Belden whatever he did say. Men 
 are funny; they hate to have their love-making 
 talked over in cold blood; it seems odd that they 
 should feel so, but they do. 
 
 " It 's strange that we never have walked to any 
 of those little Dorfs before," the lady said. Dorf is 
 German for village, and it was one of Mrs. Ellerslie's 
 charms that much travel had taught her to piece her 
 language out with bits of lingual color. "They are 
 so nett" she added. 
 
 "Yes," said Dunn, not knowing that nett meant 
 nothing more crafty than " little " and " pretty " 
 combined. "Yes, they are." He wasn't going to 
 be netted for lack of caution. 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie began to wish she had remained at 
 home with the French novel. "What ails you, any- 
 way?" she asked, frankly. Frankness is the dernier
 
 222 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 ressort of some women, just as it is the dernier cri 
 with others. 
 
 " Ails me ! " said Dunn, with a mental start. " Why, 
 nothing. Why should you think anything ailed 
 me?" 
 
 "Because something does ail you. I know it. I 
 know what it is, too. Lizzie 's been talking about 
 me. I know it." 
 
 Dunn turned so red that there was no sense at all 
 in the denial which he stoutly put forth at once. 
 
 " I wish she would n't," said Mrs. Ellerslie, con- 
 tinuing to speak the truth. "I don't think it kind 
 of her. I tell her things and she promises me not to 
 tell any one, and then she tells you. I don't think 
 it 's fair." 
 
 "Don't you tell your husband everything?" Dunn 
 asked. He did n't stop to consider the logical deduc- 
 tions to be drawn from this question of his, but Mrs. 
 Ellerslie did n't, either. 
 
 "Tell my husband everything! Indeed I don't. 
 Why, he makes my life a burden over just the little 
 that he accidentally finds out." 
 
 "Oh !" said Dunn, and after the exclamation point 
 he put a full stop. 
 
 "This is an awfully stony hill, isn't it?" the 
 lady said, presently. She had taken so little interest 
 in the last remarks which either had made that she 
 had actually thought out how she would have her
 
 THE FATAL DAY 223 
 
 green velvet hat made over in the meantime, and 
 had also regretted Belden more than ever. 
 
 " Yes, it 's very steep," said Dunn. It came to him 
 that he might take her arm and help her, but, after 
 all, what was the use? It would only make more 
 trouble. 
 
 "I suppose you think that I repeat things, too," 
 Mrs. Ellerslie went on after another pause, having now 
 worked back to the delicate topic, "but I don't. If 
 you knew all your wife has told me ! And I 've never 
 told Frank a word of it, either." 
 
 Dunn felt very keenly the baldness of this. Even 
 flirtations require some skill, and he was sharp enough 
 to divine that his companion was not considering him 
 w T orthy hers. 
 
 "It 's going to be too far to walk to Broistedt," 
 he said; "let's go to that little village towards 
 Salder." 
 
 "Very well," she said agreeably; "let J s!" 
 
 They went to Lebenstedt, and reached there in 
 about three quarters of an hour. Both were tired, 
 for the ah- had thickened and filled with a presage 
 that neither noted, although both felt it. The walk 
 had not been an unalloyed joy. The strain which 
 was stretching through the relations of the whole 
 party had now entwined itself firmly around this 
 couple, too. 
 
 " Oh, I 'm so tired," Mrs. Ellerslie exclaimed, as
 
 224 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 they crossed the last field. "We must stop and get 
 some coffee here surely. Oh, I know my heel is 
 blistering." 
 
 "Can't you do something for it?" the man asked, 
 placidly. He did n't believe her. Or her heel. Or 
 her blister. 
 
 " You heartless creature ! You know, really, I 'm 
 not surprised at the way Lizzie does her hair. I 
 would n't bother about my looks any more than she 
 does, if I were your wife. I never saw such a man ! " 
 
 "Haven't you?" 
 
 "No; why, you haven't even the least bit of fun 
 about you. I really should have had more fun with 
 Frank this morning." 
 
 Dunn was suddenly conscious of becoming frankly 
 tired of it all. 
 
 "When are you and Ellerslie going?" he asked. 
 
 She started. " Going ! Going ! " 
 
 "Yes, going ! You know he spoke of it yesterday." 
 
 She stared and gasped again. "Why why " 
 
 And then she, too, recognized that the game was 
 over.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 MRS. ELLERSLIE PACKS 
 
 "I THOUGHT you were going to stay a long time, 
 did n't you, Mrs. Ellerslie?" said Bobby. They were 
 all dining. 
 
 "No, dear," said that lady, with a tone that was 
 the attar of all roses' sweetness. " I never expected to 
 stay very long." 
 
 "Why, you said " began Bobby; but his mother 
 looked at him, and in a second of great need Mrs. 
 Dunn had a way of looking at Bobby which 
 silenced even that agreeable and communicative 
 conversationalist. 
 
 "To think that we may not see one another again 
 for ever so long," Mrs. Ellerslie said to Mrs. Dunn, as 
 they went up-stairs after dinner; then, shaking her 
 hard by the elbow, "my dear, you don't seem to 
 realize the fact at all." 
 
 "Yes, I do realize it," said Mrs. Dunn, biting her 
 lip. 
 
 "Well, aren't you sorry?" 
 
 " Of course I 'm sorry, only I can't help feeling that 
 you have n't been as comfortable as you might be 
 here. But that has n't been my fault, you know." 
 
 15
 
 "Of course it hasn't been your fault. We 've all 
 felt that, and we 've all appreciated your efforts to 
 try and make life endurable for us. If Frank has ever 
 hurt you by his criticisms, you must n't mind, because 
 deep down hi his heart he knows that it has n't been 
 your fault, just as much as any one." 
 
 "Oh, nothing hurts me," said the friend. 
 
 "You'll come hi and help me pack, won't you, 
 dear? I don't mind packing when the trunks have 
 forms to set on, but when they 're on the floor it 
 uses me up awfully." 
 
 "I '11 come hi and help you gladly," said Mrs. Dunn, 
 determined to stick it through to the end and to do it 
 with a smile, too. 
 
 Grace and Belden had set out for Oelber-am- 
 Weissen-Weg directly after dinner, and Ellerslie and 
 Dunn in a lovely burst of renewed benevolence 
 towards one another had taken Bobby to Salder. 
 Salder, in some mysterious way, had become the 
 mysterious Mecca of the whole party when at a loss 
 where to go. 
 
 "Not that there's anything to see there," said 
 Ellerslie, good-humoredly, "but I always get out of 
 the way when there 's packing to be done ; women 
 are so apt to leave it to you to lock the trunks if 
 you 're handy." 
 
 Dunn thought him a selfish brute, but made no 
 comment other than : "I always insist upon locking
 
 MRS. ELLERSLIE PACKS 227 
 
 all the trunks ; I never let my wife do anything that I 
 can save her. That 's why we 're in Europe." 
 
 "I don't call Europe saving," said Ellerslie, who 
 was calculating the train time to Paris and paying 
 almost no attention to Dunn's conversation. " I find 
 it just as expensive over here, every bit." 
 
 " But not in Dichtenberg," said Dunn. 
 
 " Oh, no, Dichtenberg is cheap enough, only for the 
 time it takes to get here and get away. But we shall 
 never be in a place like Dichtenberg again ; we Ve 
 taken a vow as to that." 
 
 Dunn was silent. 
 
 Meanwhile Mrs. Dunn was working hard over her 
 friend's trunks, while Mrs. Ellerslie, now quite her 
 usual unembarrassed self as to asking and receiving 
 favors, brought her things that should have gone in 
 the bottom and asked her how she was going to man- 
 age them on top. 
 
 "I never shall try a place like this again," she said, 
 rolling up a pink silk sunshade in white tissue paper. 
 "To think I 've never put this up since I left Harz- 
 burg. Do you know, Lizzie, I cannot see whatever 
 led you to believe that Frank and I could be going to 
 like this kind of thing?" 
 
 "You said you wanted to get in the real country 
 for a little while and rest. You wrote me so." 
 
 " Really. Well, if you took it that way, of course, 
 no one is to blame, but whatever I said I never meant
 
 228 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 this kind of country. This is n't my kind of country 
 at all." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn worked in silence. 
 
 "Whenever you come to anything of yours, just 
 throw it on the sofa. That 's the easiest way to sort 
 out. To think that day after to-morrow I '11 be in 
 the Rue de Rivoli ! It seems too good to be true." 
 
 "Shall you stay in Paris long?" 
 
 " I don't know ; as long as we 're having a good 
 time. Long enough to take the taste of Dichtenberg 
 out of our mouths, anyway. I wonder how long Will 
 is going to stay here." 
 
 "Through October, I think." 
 
 "Through October!" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Not alone, surely." 
 
 " No, we 're all going to stay." 
 
 " Lizzie \ Do you like it as much as that?" 
 
 Mrs. Dunn looked up. " I 'm crazy about it," she 
 said, briefly. 
 
 There was a little silence. "Oh, well, if you feel 
 that way," her friend said, presently, "of course, it 
 is a pretty country, no one can deny that. Is Miss 
 Waters going to stay, too?" 
 
 "Yes, she is n't very strong, and her mother thinks 
 it will do her a great deal of good." 
 
 There was another short silence ; then Mrs. Ellerslie 
 said, trying to speak naturally and failing utterly:
 
 MRS. ELLERSLIE PACKS 229 
 
 " I 'm afraid I have n't given you full credit for all 
 your cleverness, Lizzie ; you 've done wonders. If 
 there was one thing that I thought Will Belden did 
 appreciate at its full value, it was beautiful hair, but 
 he 's decided to abandon even that now, apparently." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn made no reply; she had made up her 
 mind to let nothing mar these last sweet hours. 
 
 "Of course, Will has a villainous temper," Nellie 
 Ellerslie went on, looking out of the window, " and a 
 flirt is a flirt till he dies, but if you don't mind leading 
 a young girl to take such chances, I certainly don't 
 see why I should." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn drew a sharp little breath, but said 
 nothing. 
 
 "Why, there are your bedroom slippers up on top 
 of the wardrobe," Mrs. Ellerslie exclaimed suddenly. 
 " I 'd entirely forgotten taking them that day I mis- 
 laid mine. Frank thought they must be the cook's 
 and threw them up there." 
 
 "I '11 be glad to have them again," said Mrs. Dunn, 
 meekly. " I have n't any others with me, and the 
 floors are so cold mornings when I go to wake Bobby." 
 
 " Yes, of course ; how you must have missed them ! 
 I 'm so sorry. And here 's your bottle of ammonia ; 
 we 've used all the ammonia, but it says what am- 
 monia is in German on the bottle, so you '11 have no 
 difficulty getting more." 
 
 "I 'm much obliged for the bottle," said Mrs. Dunn.
 
 " Don't mention it ; we 're the ones to be obliged. 
 And, oh, my dear, I 'm going to pack this spirit lamp 
 if you can stick it in anywhere; it 's so handy." 
 
 "I '11 make a place," said Mrs. Dunn. 
 
 "You don't want four of these cheap spirit lamps, 
 I know, and really I don't know how we ever got 
 along without one. . We have you to thank for 
 teaching us the comfort of a spirit lamp. I '11 never 
 be without one again." 
 
 "I 'm sure you 're more than welcome to it," said 
 her friend; "I always have one with me." 
 
 So the packing went on and on, until towards four 
 o'clock it was mainly all in. 
 
 "Do hurry and make tea now, Lizzie," said Mrs. 
 Ellerslie, from the bed where she had laid herself out 
 while Ellerslie's clothes were being folded in their 
 turn ; " nothing uses me up like packing, and I 'm 
 going to just snatch a wee little nap while tea is 
 brewing. You know I must not get too tired out 
 with that long journey before me to-morrow." 
 
 "I think that will be the very best thing you 
 can do," said Mrs. Dunn, and she took her various 
 belongings up in the front of her dress-skirt and 
 departed. 
 
 Ellerslie, safely returned from the expedition to 
 Salder, came in a little later and woke his wife. He 
 did n't know whether he was impatient to be gone or 
 mad at the feebly restrained buoyant spirits of those
 
 MRS. ELLERSLIE PACKS 231 
 
 they were leaving behind, but anyway he woke his 
 wife. 
 
 "Is tea ready?" she asked sleepily. "Oh, I 
 did n't see who it was." 
 
 "What man did you think it might be?" 
 
 "Frank, I beg and implore you, don't be cross. 
 I 'm almost dead with the packing, and Lizzie stayed 
 in the room and chattered until I 'm sure I have n't 
 an idea where she I mean where I put a thing." 
 
 "Why did n't you send her away?" 
 
 "How could I? When I 'm going to-morrow and 
 she 's my dearest friend. Only between ourselves, 
 she 's not my dearest friend any more, but I don't 
 mean to tell her so." 
 
 " You 'd better get up and dress for tea. We 've 
 got to grind through these last hours somehow, you 
 know." 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie sat up. "Put on my slippers, dear," 
 she said; "oh, I gave Lizzie back hers. She didn't 
 even have sense enough to blush with shame as she 
 took them. Such slippers. Sixes, I 'm sure." 
 
 "She 's got more sense than he has, anyhow," said 
 Ellerslie. 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie nodded her acquiescence in that 
 opinion.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 SAY "AU REVOIR" 
 
 THE start next day had to be an early one, as it was 
 necessary to get into Hildesheim in time to get the 
 Paris Express from St. Petersburg}].. 
 
 "I shall just hate it if the corridors are all stuffed 
 up with those horrid Russians' hand-luggage," said 
 Mrs. Ellerslie to Belden, as her pretty little high- 
 heeled boots clicked through Dichtenberg for the last 
 time. " I don't see why Russians have so much hand- 
 luggage. I don't see how it 's allowed." She spoke 
 with great, earnestness and wore her most beaming 
 smile straight through, for she was now as deter- 
 mined as Mrs. Dunn had ever been that the end 
 should pass smoothly by. 
 
 "I suppose that they can't help it," said Will, who 
 was walking with her. He was also fully decided to 
 do his share in the Peace Conference. "I suppose 
 that they would if they could." 
 
 " It 's beautiful out at this time in the morning, 
 is n't it? I really do love the country." 
 
 " I think that every one does." 
 
 "No, not every one. Frank just hates it. Frank 's 
 the greatest dear, though," she added, quickly.
 
 SAY "AU REVOIR" 233 
 
 Belden said nothing to that. 
 
 " Grace Waters is such a sweet girl, I think," Mrs. 
 Ellerslie prattled on presently. " It 's too bad that 
 she 's so delicate. But girls with thin light hair like 
 that never are very strong, I Ve been told." 
 
 Belden continued silent. 
 
 "And Lizzie tells me you're all going to stay 
 through October," she continued. "What a good 
 time you '11 have ! Of course the bedrooms will be 
 dreadfully cold, but you can have a fire in that little 
 room down-stairs. That will take that awful damp 
 out of the air. It 's going to be so damp, you know ; 
 it always rains right straight through October." 
 
 And still Belden kept silent. 
 
 "Shall you be home for Christmas, Will?" 
 
 Then he spoke. " I don't know, I 'm sure ; I Ve 
 no plans," he said, pleasantly. 
 
 "Well, you know where you can come for dinner 
 if you do get back. The usual turkey with plum- 
 dressing and oyster-sauce, and all the rest of it." 
 
 "Thank you ever so much," said the man. 
 
 Then the Molkerei kept her still for eighty seconds. 
 
 "Thank heaven I 'm leaving that, too," she ejacu- 
 lated, as soon as they were by. "Oh, Will, I have 
 suffered here ; no one will ever know all I Ve 
 suffered." 
 
 "It must have been hard on you!" said Belden, 
 with feeling.
 
 234 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 " Oh, it 's been so hard ; but I like them both, 
 anyhow. Of course, he 's stupid and she 's plain, 
 but they mean well, and people like that fill a place 
 in the world, don't they?" 
 
 "They certainly do," said Belden. 
 
 "Yes, I always know that you agree with me in 
 my opinion of people. We 've always felt just the 
 same about people, always. That 's why I was just 
 a wee bit surprised at first over your fancying Miss 
 Waters. She isn't the one I should pick out for 
 you. I know a girl in Buffalo who would be just the 
 one, but of course it 's too late now." 
 
 "I don't know that it's too late," said Belden, 
 looking steadily at the windmill. "Can you get me 
 a photograph?" 
 
 "You funny man! No, of course I can't. And 
 she had n't any money, anyway, and Miss Waters 
 has some, so that would make her the right one in 
 any case." 
 
 The dull red crept up over Will Belden's tanned 
 face; he looked at the windmill more steadily than 
 ever. "Perhaps I 'd better tell you," he said, slowly; 
 "my grandfather left me some money last month. 
 That 's why I can think of marrying now. I could n't 
 before. My salary was n't big enough consuls don't 
 get much, you know." 
 
 "Is your grandfather dead? oh, how nice!" Mrs. 
 Ellerslie's sincerity was very much to the fore
 
 SAY "AU REVOIR" 235 
 
 again. "That alters everything, doesn't it? I 'm so 
 pleased." 
 
 "Thank you," said Belden, quietly and simply. 
 
 They turned in over the gravel by the station. 
 The luggage had been gotten down in detachments 
 and was ready to weigh. Mrs. EUerslie deserted 
 Belden and slipped her hand through Mrs. Dunn's 
 arm and drew her out of hearing. 
 
 "My dear," she said, very low, "Will made a 
 clean breast of the whole affair to me coming down. 
 It 's just as I thought ; it 's her money." 
 
 "Is it?" said Mrs. Dunn, looking as interested as 
 was possible for her under the circumstances. " It 's 
 nice she has money, then, is n't it?" 
 
 "Y-yes," said Mrs. Ellerslie, not so very certain 
 as to how to take that. " It 's always nice to have 
 money." 
 
 " Of course," said Mrs. Dunn, turning to see if the 
 signal for the tram was up. It was n't. 
 
 "No, Will hasn't come out yet," said Mrs. Ellers- 
 lie ; " is n't it odd, dear, how if one ever has been 
 interested in a man the interest holds? You can't 
 help showing your old sentiment for W r ill no matter 
 how you try. It crops out when you 're not thinking. 
 Frank has noticed it and spoken of it so often," 
 
 Ellerslie came hurrying up. Will Belden had 
 stayed behind to light a cigarette. Ellerslie offered 
 Mrs. Dunn his hand. " Good-bye," he said, " I 'm
 
 236 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 sure you 've been very er kind and all that, 
 you know." 
 
 "Oh, don't mention it," said Mrs. Dunn, fairly 
 beaming. For she could see the train approaching. 
 
 Mrs. Ellerslie threw her arms around her friend's 
 neck and was about to give her an affectionate parting 
 hug, but stopped suddenly, perceiving that she would 
 spoil the ends of her long pink tulle traveling scarf if 
 she did so. So Mrs. Dunn got a kiss and a grab at 
 her shoulders instead. " Good-bye, dear; do take 
 care of yourself. Don't overdo, working for others. 
 It 's a real failing of yours, Lizzie, and the people 
 who let you overwork don't like you one bit the 
 better for it, remember." Then she added, in a 
 hasty whisper: "And do look out about Will's com- 
 ing in and borrowing, won't you, dear? He has just 
 kept Frank furious this whole fortnight with his ways. 
 Oh, I have had a hard time ! " 
 
 "I '11 look out," Mrs. Dunn promised. 
 
 They all turned to watch the train come in. It 
 didn't take the travelers long to get aboard. Mrs. 
 Ellerslie appeared at once at the window; she was a 
 beautiful picture with her face framed in the soft 
 pink tulle. Ellerslie stood just behind her. Both 
 smiled brightly. 
 
 "Remember me to them all when you get back," 
 said Mrs. Ellerslie. "Kiss dear little Bobby for 
 me."
 
 SAY "AU REVOIR" 237 
 
 The train does n't stop very long at Dichtenberg ; 
 it was moving on by this time. 
 
 "Good-bye," cried Mrs. Ellerslie, waving one end 
 of the pink scarf and leaning out a little; "good-bye, 
 Will!" 
 
 "Good-bye," Belden yelled after her. 
 
 The tram moved off and away; the morning mist 
 was rising softly, drifting this way and that over the 
 plowed fields. In some places it was as thick as a 
 snow-cloud, hi others transparent, a mere silvery 
 sheen. The red roofs of the village were piled up 
 without any perspective among the green shadows of 
 their trees, and the great outlines of the Burgberg 
 and its sister hills went rolling off above. 
 
 "Is n't it all unutterably lovely?" Mrs. Dunn said, 
 pausing as she spoke; "oh, I never saw anything 
 like that before." 
 
 " I was just thinking the same thing," said Belden, 
 "and then I wondered if it really was the prettiest 
 view I 'd ever seen, or whether it was just that 
 that" 
 
 Mrs. Dunn laughed lightly. "A little of both, per- 
 haps," she said, gayly. "But we must n't mind the 
 things she said. I don't believe that she remembers 
 what she says herself from day to day. Lots of 
 women are like that." 
 
 "As if gossiping ever cemented friendship. Well, 
 I don't know that I regret the past fortnight. It 's
 
 238 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 given me a lot to think about and taught me some 
 mighty big lessons." 
 
 "I think I can say the same," said Mrs. Dunn. 
 " Bob and I agreed last night to never let even Bobby 
 hear us differ again. I wanted to tell you that be- 
 cause we didn't behave so very well ourselves at 
 first. I was so vexed over his taking Bobby out of 
 school, and then I was a little hurt, too, over no 
 one's appreciating the way I worked." 
 
 "We were an ungrateful lot, that we were," said 
 Belden; "but we 've learned that lesson, too." 
 
 They walked swiftly along the level roadway, where 
 the apple-trees were hanging full of ripe fruit. 
 
 "Everything looks so beautiful so good to me 
 this morning," Mrs. Dunn said; "it seems another 
 world. The woods are going to be different from 
 what they have been. I won't have to fuss and worry 
 any more. I feel almost as if my old self had vanished 
 with that train and left a new happy self instead." 
 
 "I feel the same way exactly," said the man.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THE PICNIC 
 
 BELDEN and his companion climbed the hill slowly 
 and happily. Once the man took out his handker- 
 chief and waved it towards Hildesheim. 
 
 "How silly !" said Mrs. Dunn, laughing. 
 
 "But I feel silly," he protested. "I feel too buoy- 
 antly silly for words. I 'd like to hang upside down 
 over a bar the way Bobby does, or do something 
 equally jolly by way of expressing my feelings. To 
 think I '11 be able to tree my shoes again and keep 
 the trees ! Oh ! " 
 
 " I 'm afraid we '11 grow very untidy," said Mrs. 
 Dunn, thoughtfully; "it certainly keeps a room neat 
 when you lock everything up to go to lunch." 
 
 They passed the duck-pond, they passed the covered 
 resting-bench, they even climbed the steeper part, but 
 neither murmured. 
 
 "How quiet the hotel looks," Belden said, as they 
 came in sight of it. 
 
 "So peaceful," said Mrs. Dunn. 
 
 They found a surprise picnic getting up steam with 
 a vengeance. Dunn was assisting Bobby to master
 
 240 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 the primary intricacies of getting a donkey into the 
 shafts of a donkey-cart, and Grace Waters, in a 
 sailor suit of brown linen, was counting out what 
 they 'd have to take with them on the table in the 
 private dining-room. 
 
 "Are they gone?" Dunn called, from the scene of 
 his labors, and his wife at once deserted to his side 
 and left Belden to seek Grace's. 
 
 "Yes, they 're really gone," she said, touching her 
 husband's hair affectionately, where he was stooping 
 to devise new tugs out of rope. " Oh, Bob, I 'm so 
 happy!" 
 
 Dunn looked up at her and smiled. "It 's been a 
 hard pull for you, little woman," he said, kindly. 
 "I'm sure I don't know what did ail everybody." 
 He had n't a doubt but that he was quite sincere. 
 
 "I don't think Mrs. Ellerslie liked so many people 
 around," said Bobby, folding the donkey's ears across 
 his eyes. "She never liked it when anybody else 
 came up, did she, Papa?" 
 
 "Well, she '11 have Frank all to herself, now," said 
 his mother, cheerfully. "Oh, I'm so glad they're 
 gone!" 
 
 "Papa," said Bobby, "if Mamma's tired she can 
 ride in the cart, and I '11 ride on the donkey. I 'd 
 just as soon. Then if my feet are muddy I can wi e 
 them on his hind-legs." 
 
 The cook came just here to ask if three hard-boiled
 
 THE PICNIC 241 
 
 eggs apiece beside the cold meat would be enough, 
 and if there would be room to carry some bread for 
 Hans. Hans was the donkey. 
 
 " Oh, my, but I 'm glad I 'm not hi school in 
 Hanover to-day," said Bobby, ecstatically. "I never 
 did think much of going to school." 
 
 Belden and Grace came out on to the gravel just 
 then, laughing like two children. 
 
 "What is it?" Dunn asked. 
 
 "It's nothing," said Belden, "only we're all un- 
 commonly happy." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn laughed with them. " I believe I '11 go 
 in and curl my front hair," she said. "I haven't 
 dared curl it before, for fear I 'd be accused of wanting 
 to elope with Frank Ellerslie." 
 
 "And I believe I'll take off my coronet braid," 
 said Grace. "I've never dared appear without it, 
 for fear Mrs. Ellerslie would think it was n't 
 mine." 
 
 "She knew it wasn't yours," said Bobby; "she 
 talked about it all the time." 
 
 There was nothing to do but laugh some more 
 over that, and then the two women went into the 
 house. 
 
 "Isn't it too lovely to think we can leave our 
 things lying all about now?" said Mrs. Dunn; "oh 
 dear, and I was so fond of Nellie before, too." 
 
 "I never could quite make her out," said Grace; 
 
 16
 
 242 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "she always seemed to mean the things when she 
 said them." 
 
 "You must n't pay any attention to anything she 
 ever said to you about Will," said Mrs. Dunn. "Will 
 never will pay attention to anything that she said 
 about you." 
 
 Mrs. Dunn, in spite of all her good intentions, still 
 remained subject to the law that made her not able 
 to cease being herself, but she meant so well that 
 Grace took the word at face value for the deed and 
 readily promised what was asked. 
 
 "I never did believe her," she added, afterwards. 
 
 " I wonder which of them told the truth about some 
 things, though," said Mrs. Dunn, proceeding to curl 
 her hair ; " they never agreed on anything, you know." 
 
 "I don't know," said Grace. "He didn't strike 
 me as being a bit more careful in his statements than 
 she was." 
 
 " I 'm so glad it 's all over," Mrs. Dunn said. 
 
 The procession got off about twelve. The forester's 
 dog, the poodle, and a little busybody who was always 
 about, although no one owned him, joined the party 
 unasked. Bobby drove the donkey with a father and 
 a mother holding the bit on either side. Even Bobby's 
 par value seemed to have risen through the late 
 circumstances. 
 
 Grace and Belden walked behind. They had pretty 
 well made up their minds to risk it, anyhow, but still
 
 THE PICNIC 243 
 
 the sight of Mr. and Mrs. Dunn's bonne camaraderie 
 was cheering. 
 
 It was the most beautiful day that Dichtenberg, 
 old as it is, had ever seen. The atmosphere was so 
 clear that every one of the fifteen cozy little red- 
 roofed villages could be clearly counted on the plain. 
 The woods were just getting golden and flamed in 
 glints and flecks, and the road was bronze with soft, 
 dry, dead leaves through which the feet of the party 
 swish-swished softly. 
 
 "We must go up on the tower when we get back 
 and see the sunset," Belden called. 
 
 "Good idea," Dunn called in reply. Neither he 
 nor Mrs. Dunn turned around; there was really no 
 limit to the desire of every one to be agreeable. 
 
 "See how pretty and bright the trees towards the 
 plain are, and how dark and green the shadow is 
 ahead," said Grace. 
 
 "It was funny about the Ellerslies," Belden said, 
 thoughtfully, shuffling his feet through the dried yel- 
 low and brown leaves. "I never realized that mar- 
 ried people could make one another and everybody 
 else so uncomfortable before. I 've often seen hus- 
 bands and wives very mean to one another, but I Ve 
 never in my life seen so many different varieties of 
 painful situations as in the past two weeks." 
 
 "But were n't they always like that?" 
 
 "No, it never struck me that they were. But, of
 
 244 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 course, I 've never lived right under the same roof 
 with them before. That 's the kind of business that 
 proves people up." 
 
 "I think they made it pretty hard for Mrs. Dunn/' 
 said Grace; "but we all did that," she added. 
 
 " Yes, I fancy she has n't had any too good a time 
 so far, but it 's all straightened out now." 
 
 "I'm sorry they broke her hot-water bag," the 
 girl said. She wondered, suddenly, if her feet would 
 get cold up on the tower watching the sunset. Like 
 Mrs. Dunn, she was still herself. Tried and sweetened 
 by observation and good resolutions, but still very 
 much herself. 
 
 "I wrote to Hildesheim for two hot-water bags 
 yesterday," said Belden; "they'll come to-night or 
 to-morrow, I hope." 
 
 "Oh, how nice! How thoughtful of you!" said 
 the girl, turning to look admiringly up at him. "Oh, 
 there's a rabbit!" she added, quickly, for her com- 
 panion's glance was disconcerting ; " there are so many 
 rabbits about here," she went on, hurriedly, for the 
 glance was still enduring. 
 
 " I suppose they 're on the Paris Schnellzug 'way 
 past Minden by this time," Belden said, finally; "not 
 the rabbits," he added, laughing. 
 
 Grace laughed, too (it was so easy for them all to 
 laugh to-day). "No, they 're in Hildesheim," she said 
 gayly. " They don't take the train till this afternoon."
 
 THE PICNIC 245 
 
 (They were in Hildesheim, dining happily at the 
 Weinerhof, with so many German officers about that 
 Mrs. Ellerslie was in the finest possible flavor, al- 
 though all she said was: "Oh, Frank, how horrid in 
 these men to stare so ; you 'd think they 'd never 
 seen a pink chiffon scarf before ! ") 
 
 "Well, wherever they are, I hope they're very 
 happy," Belden said, charitably. 
 
 "But do you think they're ever so happy as we 
 are?" Grace asked, and then blushed furiously. 
 
 "That isn't possible!" said Belden, with a tender 
 inflection. 
 
 "Oh oh oh, I thought that was a rabbit," 
 said the girl, and then ensued one of those delight- 
 fully thrilling pauses which help make love-affairs so 
 individual, so different from the way that any others 
 have ever felt before or will ever feel again. 
 
 And now the little party was passing down the 
 road which holds the center of that pretty valley that 
 stretches to just beyond Schloss Oelber. The peas- 
 ants were plowing the fields to left and right, and 
 the three dogs ranged wildly, scaring up long-tailed, 
 brilliant-hued pheasants by accident, and chasing 
 stray rabbits madly into the woods. Far, far ahead, 
 the trees of the park of Oelber rose in softly circling, 
 bushy curves against the sky, and the tower showed 
 sharply among their green. 
 
 They finally arrived at their destination, and the
 
 246 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 whole of the picnic was forthwith safely deposited 
 under a large, spreading tree. 
 
 "Now, Bobby," said his father, "if you'll come 
 with Papa, he '11 show you just how to tie the donkey, 
 so you '11 know another time." 
 
 Bobby went with his father to learn how to tie a 
 donkey, and Belden assisted Mrs. Dunn and Grace to 
 spread out the rugs and get the kettle onto its feet 
 and the spirit lamp lighted. 
 
 "I 'm so hungry," he said, for he was still a man. 
 
 "You '11 have something to eat in just a few min- 
 utes," said Grace, already in training for wifehood. 
 
 " Oh, Mamma, we tied him," cried Bobby, running 
 up. "Oh, Mamma, you ought to see him; he 's eat- 
 ing grass just exactly the same way he does at home, 
 isn't he, Papa?" 
 
 "Is he, dear? I 'm so glad," said his mother, set- 
 ting out the cups and plates. 
 
 "You know the donkey will teach the boy so 
 he '11 know just how to handle a horse when the time 
 comes," said Dunn to Belden. 
 
 "Only a horse won't walk all the time, will he, 
 Papa?" said Bobby, "and he won't have his tail 
 shaved, neither," 
 
 It was warm and delightfully sunshiny where they 
 were. The exquisite neatness and order of the Ger- 
 man forest surrounded them on three sides, and on 
 the fourth they looked out upon the exquisite neat-
 
 THE PICNIC 247 
 
 ness and order of German farming. The grain and 
 the sugar-beets had all been harvested, and all the 
 roads swept after the litter. The apples had been 
 gathered from the fruit-trees which bordered the 
 highway, and a man was making his way slowly 
 along, whitewashing all the trunks. There comes the 
 day in every German autumn when every fruit-tree 
 in the whole land receives a coat of cleanliness and 
 protection, and this was that day in the Dichtenberger 
 Domdne. 
 
 "The kettle is beginning to bubble, Mamma," 
 Bobby said; "can we eat now?" 
 
 "Just a minute," said his mother, giving him a 
 buttered Brotchen to keep him still, and then she put 
 the tea in the teapot and made the tea. 
 
 (Mrs. Ellerslie was just then saying to her husband : 
 " Frank, dear, do you suppose that we shall ever get 
 the taste of that horrible tea out of our mouths 
 again?" and Frank Ellerslie was replying: "The 
 tea was n't so bad in itself, but it was the way that 
 she made it ! ") 
 
 Then they all began on the essence of what makes 
 a picnic a picnic, and it really was astonishing how 
 good everything tasted. It did n't seem possible to 
 attribute it all to the fact that the Ellerslies were 
 gone ; it seemed as if some of the joy must be due to 
 the appetites and the air. 
 
 "Well," said Dunn, as he opened the beer, "get
 
 248 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 out the glasses now, and we '11 drink long life and 
 happiness to the travelers." 
 
 "Yes, indeed," said Belden; "and we'll drink to 
 ourselves, too." 
 
 "Papa," said Bobby, his mouth just pleasantly 
 full, "can I take the donkey-cart back to America 
 with me?" 
 
 "Oh, look at that squirrel," said Mrs. Dunn; 
 "is n't he cunning? I always love to watch squirrels 
 run up a tree." 
 
 "There 's something on the back of my neck," said 
 Belden; "what is it, Bobby?" 
 
 Bobby laid down what he had in his hands, got 
 leisurely up, and looked. "Oh," he said, making a 
 fearful face, " it 's a worm going right along down. 
 Oh, don't it look awful?" 
 
 There was quite a good deal of excitement before 
 Dunn had disposed of the worm. 
 
 "Are you really as afraid of them as that?" Mrs. 
 Dunn asked the worm's victim, as he returned to 
 his seat deathly white. 
 
 "They make me horrid sick," he said, apologeti- 
 cally. By that time the donkey had slipped his bridle 
 and required immediate attention. You see, it was 
 a regular picnic. 
 
 "Can I have just one more cup of tea?" Grace 
 asked. " Oh, never mind, if there is n't any more." 
 
 "I thought every one was through," said the host-
 
 THE PICNIC 249 
 
 ess; "it won't take a second to light the spirit lamp 
 again." 
 
 "You 've had quite enough tea," said Belden, with 
 a fascinating sound of having the right to be authori- 
 tative in his words ; " you don't want any more." 
 
 Grace blushed. " No, I don't, really," she said. 
 
 "I '11 tell you what you two had better do," said 
 Mrs. Dunn; "go and take a walk while I clear up 
 all this. Bob and Bobby are going to hunt mush- 
 rooms." 
 
 "Not the poisonous kind," said Bobby. "Papa 
 must carry the book. I don't want to be poisoned, 
 do you, Papa?" 
 
 "But can't I help you with the picking up?" Grace 
 asked, as people always ask. 
 
 "No, my dear, I can do it easier alone," Mrs. Dunn 
 answered, as the one who does the work invariably 
 answers. " Do go on ; it 's so beautiful in the woods 
 at this time." 
 
 They strolled slowly away. 
 
 It was indeed beautiful hi the woods. Woods ab- 
 solutely free from flies, mosquitoes, and underbrush, 
 are almost Paradise hi any case, but the Dichten- 
 berger Wald, with its mother-growth of one hundred 
 and fifty years ago, was a sort of essence of ideal 
 conditions, and all it needed to fulfill the dream 
 was an Adam and an Eve. 
 
 Belden and Grace had too many advantages over
 
 250 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 their first ancestors to envy them, even if any pair 
 of lovers ever yet envied any dead and gone married 
 couple, but they certainly emulated them as they 
 wandered down the wide green road that passes 
 along to Oelber this way. For the time being no one 
 and nothing existed except themselves, and the won- 
 der of beauty, of silence, and of love. 
 
 " It 's so pretty in the woods/' the girl said, over 
 and over again. " Oh, see, there 's a rabbit ! " 
 
 " I 'm awfully fond of the country," Belden replied 
 each time, and was perfectly content with the limited 
 output of their united brains. 
 
 They walked on and on. He crowded her almost 
 into the ditch most of the time, but that does n't 
 signify lack of either manners or consideration when 
 people are in love. 
 
 " Oh, there 's another rabbit ! " she said once, when 
 he turned and looked at her in an unutterably em- 
 barrassing but altogether delightful way. " There 
 there are so many rabbits." 
 
 "Do look out for that stone," he said, putting his 
 hand on her arm. "Oh, there 's no use talking; it 
 is pretty in these woods." 
 
 "I can walk alone easiest," she said, blushing deep 
 crimson. " It it 's just a perfect day is n't it?" 
 
 "I never saw such a day," said Belden; "it 's the 
 most beautiful day that I 've ever seen." 
 
 " Oh, there 's a rabbit ! " said the girl.
 
 THE PICNIC 251 
 
 They came out finally opposite the park of Oelber. 
 
 "I'd no idea we'd walked so far," said Belden; 
 "you must be tired to death. What a brute I am!" 
 
 " I 'm not a bit tired, not a bit," she protested. 
 But he insisted on their sitting down in the edge of 
 the woods for a little. 
 
 Belden got out his cigarette case and lit a cigar- 
 ette, and Grace clasped her hands in her lap. There 
 were no rabbits. "Oh, there 's a pheasant," she ex- 
 claimed. It did just as well. 
 
 "What a gorgeous time we shall have next month ! " 
 Belden said. "I never looked forward so much to 
 anything in my life." 
 
 "It 's nice Bobby has the donkey-cart," said Grace. 
 
 "He 's such a nice little boy," said Belden. 
 
 "Oh, he 's a dear," said the girl. 
 
 Then another thrilling pause ensued. 
 
 "I love to sit still and think," said the girl, after 
 a while. "I do love the country so." 
 
 "It 's so still and quiet," Belden commented. 
 
 "Do you suppose," Grace said very slowly, "that 
 Mr. and Mrs. Ellerslie ever are really happy when 
 they're together?" 
 
 Belden threw his cigarette away. "How funny," 
 he said; "I was just wondering that very thing!" 
 
 (Mr. and Mrs. Ellerslie were just then getting them- 
 selves ensconced in their reserved "First Class for 
 Paris." "Frank," she was saying, "if you knew how
 
 252 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 happy you 're making me taking me to Paris, you 'd 
 never be jealous again." "Jealous!" Frank Ellerslie 
 was saying. "Why, my dearest pet, I never," etc.) 
 
 "But do you suppose that they are happy ever?" 
 
 "I don't know. It 's hard to say. They have the 
 name of being tremendously in love, you know. There 
 was nothing mercenary hi the marriage; they each 
 had their own money." 
 
 "I can't imagine talking about any one I loved as 
 she talks about him," the girl said slowly, the color 
 ebbing and flowing hi her cheeks over her own 
 daring. 
 
 " I can't imagine treating any one I loved the way 
 he treated her," said Belden. "If I had a wife I 'd 
 want to feel towards her as if she was a woman all 
 the time not sometimes a goddess and sometimes 
 a dog. I can't understand marrying a woman and 
 then making her cry." 
 
 Grace looked very thoughtful, almost sad. "It 
 was n't just that he made her cry so often," she said; 
 "it was that we all that we all I don't know how 
 to express it exactly, but we all seemed forced into 
 taking sides when they were mad at each other. I 've 
 never been in just that kind of a situation before. I 'm 
 sure I never agreed with either of them." 
 
 "Nor I," said Belden, joining in her unconscious 
 innuendo. "But I know exactly what you mean, 
 although, as far as that goes, it has struck me often
 
 THE PICNIC 253 
 
 and often that married people are never as particular 
 about being polite to one another as they might be." 
 
 " Oh, but Cousin Lizzie and Mr. Dunn always have 
 seemed to get on beautifully together." 
 
 "I wonder if it 's necessary to hitch along like that, 
 anyhow," said Belden. "I declare, I don't see why it 
 should be oh, they really did scare me ! Honestly 
 they did. At least," he added, with a little smile, 
 "I think that they did." 
 
 Grace's face grew very earnest. "Mrs. Ellerslie is 
 so pretty, though," she said, slowly, "and she 's al- 
 ways had so much attention. I suppose it 's hard for 
 her to give up and settle down with just her husband." 
 
 "Then she ought never to have married," said Bel- 
 den. "If a girl isn't prepared to settle down with 
 just her husband, she ought never to marry. That 's 
 flat." 
 
 "Yes," said Grace, blushing again, "I think so, too; 
 but I 'm not a real American girl hardly. I 've 
 lived so much over here, and Mamma 's been so very 
 strict with me, that I 'm different in many ways." 
 
 "Well, you want to thank your mother a whole 
 lot, then," said Belden. "Maybe you think I'm 
 funny, talking to you this way, but I think most of 
 the trouble in life comes from not saying what one 
 means or not meaning what one says, and as long as 
 we are talking about getting married and all that 
 sort of thing, I don't know why this is n't a good time
 
 254 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 for me to find out a girl's views and you to find out a 
 man's; what do you think?" 
 
 She looked directly into his eyes, then. "If you 
 want to ask me any questions, I '11 try to answer 
 honestly," she said. " I 'm sure I 'm very glad to 
 learn anything, always." 
 
 "Shall we be quite frank?" said the man. 
 
 "Yes," said the girl. 
 
 "Well, then," he took his cane and began punch- 
 ing deep holes in the dead leaves at his feet, "this is 
 what I think : I think when people marry they ought 
 to stand by one another, not just in good weather, 
 but in all kinds of thunder and lightning, through 
 thick and thin, in short." 
 
 " People promise to do so hi the marriage service." 
 
 " I know, but the marriage service does n't seem to 
 make much impression bn any one any more. It 
 seems to me that there 's a good, plain understanding 
 necessary, or the marriage service does n't cut any 
 figure on anybody's mind. 'For richer, for poorer, 
 for better, for worse.' How much does any one 
 think about that nowadays?" 
 
 " It does n't seem to bear much relation to Mr. and 
 Mrs. Ellerslie, surely," Grace said, with a little smile. 
 
 " No, nor to almost any one. And it 's a mighty 
 poor way to start on a long journey, with only things 
 for good weather. Trouble 's almost sure to come" 
 without thinking he put forth his hand and laid it
 
 THE PICNIC 255 
 
 over hers, which was playing idly with a blade of 
 grass "and it 's when the trouble comes that they 
 ought to mean a great deal to one another, more 
 rather than less than in the good times. At least, 
 it seems to me so." 
 
 She was quite still, and her hand was quite still in 
 his; her heart was beating a little hushed throb; 
 she had n't quite thought of the possibility of life's 
 meaning all this. 
 
 "And no matter how much trouble there is," Bel- 
 den went on, continuing to punch holes and also con- 
 tinuing to cover the little hand with his own, "it can 
 be weathered if they put up the fight against it to- 
 gether. It 's when the split comes and they go seek- 
 ing outside advice and sympathy that the trouble 
 that can't be weathered comes. And, O God, there 
 is so much of that kind of trouble nowadays!" 
 
 He paused, but she did n't speak. She had her 
 face turned from him, looking back up the valley to 
 the cozy little Hof set amidst its nest of green 
 trees. 
 
 '' I hope that if I married a girl I 'd never forget 
 to be a gentleman to her," Belden went on presently. 
 " But if I ever forgot once and she did n't forget to 
 be a lady to me then, by George, it seems to me 
 I 'd be so ashamed, when I did come to my senses, that 
 she 'd have the best of me ever after. The only thing 
 in this world that it really counts to lose is your
 
 256 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 temper, you saw me pretty close to losing mine 
 once, and you '11 have to take my word for it that 
 that was the closest I ever did come to losing it in 
 my life. I think losing one's temper is a low trick 
 to put up on the world anyhow, kind of like mur- 
 dering a man when you 're drunk and then saying 
 you don't remember anything about it." 
 
 "You speak as if you wanted to say that the best 
 people are n't doing it this year," Grace said, with a 
 wee little smile. 
 
 "They certainly are not," he said, laughing a little ; 
 " indeed, I believe the very highest society look very 
 much askance at tempers, don't they?" 
 
 " I 've never been permitted to use mine, I 
 know." 
 
 "Perhaps the safest rule in married life would be 
 for both to agree never to use the temper at once 
 say, whoever got it first must have it all alone until 
 entirely through with it. That would forestall all 
 complications." 
 
 "I should think so." 
 
 "And if people had a good understanding as to 
 tempers and sticking together, it does n't seem to 
 me that anything else could count for very much." 
 
 "It could n't be very bad, anyway." 
 
 "Not if they had been brought up in the same 
 circumstances and were used to about the same kind 
 of living."
 
 THE PICNIC 257 
 
 "No." There was trepidation in her tones. She 
 began to be acutely, painfully conscious of her hand 
 in his. 
 
 "I want to make a clean breast of something," 
 Belden said, suddenly, " you can think whatever you 
 please of me, but I 've got it on my mind, and I must 
 say it." 
 
 "Oh," she said, altogether fluttered and fearful, 
 "don't let us talk any more about serious things; 
 let 's walk on back ! " 
 
 "Let me just say this one thing," pleaded the 
 man. " It 's the kind of thing no man ever says, but 
 I Ve had a big lesson in seeing what it means to 
 live off of the square, and I want to live on it here- 
 after if I can. I dare say Mrs. Ellerslie has said things 
 about me to you, and I don't give a hang what they 
 are, but walking down to the station this morning 
 she told me that of course you would be the right 
 girl on account of your money. You see, she knew 
 I 'd come over here to scrub along with a small ap- 
 pointment until the way to bigger things opened, and 
 she figured that a girl educated in Europe and with 
 money would be bound to be the right girl." 
 
 Grace was still, waiting, rather frightened. 
 
 "I told her, then, what I 've told no one else, not 
 even Lizzie ; and that is that I inherited some money 
 a while ago. Marriage was never possible for me 
 before; it is now." 
 
 17
 
 258 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "Yes," she said, very low. 
 
 Belden loosed her hand and jumped up. "Come," 
 he said, offering her his aid for rising, " I 'm sure 
 I 've bored you enough with my views now. Won't 
 you tell me yours as we walk back?" 
 
 "Mine? Oh!" She colored very deeply. "I'm 
 afraid I have n't any. All I 've ever thought is that 
 I 'd like to spend my life making making people 
 happy." 
 
 "Well, that's a good theory to work on," said 
 Belden, laughing; "perhaps it would work out very 
 much the same as my own ; only being nothing but a 
 man, I took a long time to say what you get in three 
 words." 
 
 She smiled. 
 
 " I expect, if we look hi the prayer-book, we 'd find 
 we were just back at the marriage service," he went 
 on. "You know, that's the way life's biggest les- 
 sons always end, one works and strives and strug- 
 gles, and then at last one finds all that has been 
 accomplished is the mere learning by heart of a 
 single verse that said it all the time." 
 
 Grace felt altogether queer and trembly. "Oh, see, 
 there 's a rabbit," she said. She felt quite incapable 
 of more. 
 
 (Mrs. Ellerslie still en route for Paris was lean- 
 ing pleasantly back against her pillow, with her pretty 
 feet crossed on the cushions opposite. "I wonder
 
 THE PICNIC 259 
 
 where they all are now," she said, but Ellerslie did 
 not answer. 
 
 "Frank, dear, shouldn't you think Lizzie would 
 try to wear five and a half shoes ; they 'd only be a 
 little too small for her?" 
 
 Still Ellerslie was silent. 
 
 " Lovey," said his wife and then turning she saw 
 that he was asleep. 
 
 So she went to sleep, too.) 
 
 And Belden was content to wait. 
 
 They walked back slowly, and found Mrs. Dunn 
 reading the mushroom book aloud to her family. 
 
 "Oh, there they come !" exclaimed Bobby. "Now 
 we can go home, can't we? Even if they haven't 
 got it all fixed up, we can go home now, can't we?" 
 he added, anxiously. "We don't have to wait for 
 them to get it all fixed up, do we? What is it they 
 must fix up, anyhow, Papa?"
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 FINISHED ! 
 
 MR. and Mrs. Ellerslie went through to the dining- 
 car rather early that evening ("We shall be weeks 
 getting civilized again," the pretty lady said with 
 pathos.) and took their seats on either side of 
 a table-de-luxe with a rose-de-luxe in a small vase 
 between them. 
 
 "Well, this is existence," said Ellerslie, as he 
 glanced haughtily about. "Give me life, hereafter 
 no more country retreats." 
 
 "And Lizzie liked it," said Mrs. Ellerslie, looking 
 in the mirror beyond and smiling. "She actually 
 liked it." 
 
 "Her husband didn't, though." 
 
 "No; wasn't he henpecked, that poor man? He 
 did n't dare call his soul his own. And the way she 
 used to set him to tend that child while she capered 
 off with Will!" 
 
 "I wouldn't just say 'capered,'" said Ellerslie; 
 " but she was off a good deal. I used to go in there 
 often for things, and she 'd be gone."
 
 FINISHED! 261 
 
 "And always with Will, too." 
 
 "Oh, yes; he was always out. I never went to his 
 room for anything that I found him. I always had 
 to hunt." 
 
 "And they were so disobliging, too," said Mrs. 
 Ellerslie, thoughtfully sipping soup. "I've never 
 seen people so disobliging." 
 
 "My poo' itty kitty" 
 
 "Oh, Frank, don't, please. Others may come in 
 any minute. Not but what it 's reassuring to be 
 loved after all we 've gone through this month. That 
 mouse will you ever forget him? And then the 
 dreadful way they all went for one another when 
 alone with me. Did Lizzie ever talk to you about 
 her husband?" 
 
 "No; how could she make any interesting conver- 
 sation out of that fellow?" 
 
 "Oh, he 's a fearful bore," said Mrs. Ellerslie, with 
 conviction. 
 
 Ellerslie attacked his fish. "That 's what gave her 
 that tired look, I suppose," he said, meditatively. 
 
 "Yes, neither of them have any principle. You 
 could see that by her being willing to let Will marry 
 that girl a girl with almost no hair at all. Poor 
 
 win I" 
 
 "Oh, I reckon Belden can look out for himself." 
 "I know, Frank; but a man in your position 
 does n't know what it is to live with false hair and
 
 262 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 pads and all manner of things of that kind. Poor 
 Will!" 
 
 " He 's picked her out." 
 
 "Oh, no, he has n't; Lizzie Dunn has picked her 
 out. I '11 wager anything she '11 hurry matters so 
 fast, now I 'm gone " 
 
 "Now you 're gone !" 
 
 "Yes; I 've been keeping Will away all I could." 
 
 "Ah oh go on." 
 
 "Nothing, only I think they '11 settle it right 
 off now." 
 
 Just to show how shrewd a prophet Mrs. Ellerslie 
 was, the story of that evening in Dichtenberg shall 
 be told and told at once. 
 
 They had a good supper that night, and were all 
 uncommonly hungry. Even love gets up an appe- 
 tite if forced fast enough in the open air, and the 
 sausages and potatoes with onion sauce tasted better 
 than ever before. The little private dining-room had 
 taken advantage of the picnic to get itself thoroughly 
 cleaned, and a new motto in burnt wood with the 
 roses colored red hung over the sofa. The two win- 
 dows were open to the forest, and outside the very 
 softest night wind that ever stirred was drifting the 
 breath of the mignonette and roses into the room. 
 
 "Fancy roses blooming outdoors in October," Mrs.
 
 FINISHED ! 263 
 
 Dunn said, noticing that Bobby hadn't taken his 
 napkin out of the ring, but not saying anything be- 
 cause they were all so happy. 
 
 "We '11 have to have lanterns to make that expe- 
 dition up the tower," Belden said, glancing towards 
 the outdoors referred to. "It 's pitch dark; at least 
 it will be when we 're through." 
 
 "Have they a lantern here, do you suppose?" Mrs. 
 Dunn asked. 
 
 " Of course, they must have one," said her husband ; 
 " a hotel in the country without a lantern ! " Then he 
 was afraid that he had sounded impatient, and smiled 
 so widely that he choked. 
 
 " I '11 ask, when Herr Everling comes back with the 
 beer," said Belden. 
 
 "Papa, can I carry it if they 've got one?" asked 
 Bobby. "I want to." 
 
 "It will be better for you to carry your little elec- 
 tric light," said his mother; "then you'll have a 
 light all to yourself." 
 
 "Oh, yes. I '11 run and get it." 
 
 There was a lantern, just as they had expected, 
 and when they were through the women got capes, 
 and Bobby got his electric lamp, and Dunn got a cigar, 
 and they all went out to walk on slowly, until Belden 
 should overtake them with the lantern. 
 
 "It's such a perfect night," Mrs. Dunn said to 
 Grace, as with their arms linked together they wan-
 
 dered along the road. "The faint soft breeze steal- 
 ing out of the forest and over us is just like a dream 
 made real, or something of that sort." 
 
 "Oh, life seems almost too lovely," said the girl. 
 To her the whole wide universe seemed filled to-night 
 with rabbits. 
 
 Bobby was running here and there, snapping his 
 electric lamp among the bushes. " I thought we were 
 going up the tower to see the sun set," he exclaimed. 
 "Oh, Papa, there 's a little lizard see !" 
 
 "Yes, I see," said Dunn, agreeably. "You know 
 lizards are very useful, Bobby; they bore holes and 
 eat up things." It was a theory of his that children 
 really learn more by intelligently aided observation 
 than they do at school, but he had often quite for- 
 gotten to aid Bobby's observation lately. 
 
 "What do they eat up, Papa?" 
 
 "Oh oh, anything they can get." 
 
 " Is it always useful to eat up anything you can get ; 
 is it, Papa?" 
 
 "Don't ask silly questions, Bobby." 
 
 " Oh, Papa, do you suppose the donkey 's asleep 
 yet? That is n't a silly question, is it? Is it, Papa?" 
 
 Dunn felt that Bobby had had almost enough va- 
 cation or else that he ought to be in bed, he did n't 
 just know which. 
 
 "Do you think he 's asleep, Papa?" 
 
 " I don't know, my boy."
 
 FINISHED! 265 
 
 "Well, do you think Mrs. Ellerslie 's asleep yet? 
 Oh, Papa, what did she mean by finding the other 
 half of her soul ? What did she mean by that, Papa? " 
 
 "Bob, dear," called the wife and mother behind, 
 "what do you suppose makes it take so long?" She 
 referred, of course, to Belden and the lantern. 
 
 "Oh, I suppose it had n't any oil in it or something 
 like that." Dunn was glad to seek any shelter from 
 Bobby's rain of questions. 
 
 "Nothing could have happened, could it?" Grace 
 asked, in sudden apprehension. "There could n't have 
 been any explosion, anything that hurt the cook?" 
 
 "No, no!" But then, as they had been waiting 
 fully five minutes, Dunn suddenly became curious 
 himself and started for the house to see what had 
 caused the delay. 
 
 " Oh, Mamma, I 've stepped in a deep place where 
 it was wet," exclaimed Bobby. 
 
 " Bobby ! What made you run over on the grass? " 
 
 " I did n't know I was on the grass. I was playing 
 I was blind, with my eyes shut." 
 
 "Just look, Grace; he's gone right in up to his 
 ankle!" 
 
 " It 's good I 've got my electric light, so you can 
 see how deep I 've gone in, isn't it, Mamma?" 
 
 "Well, we can't help matters now, dear; anyway, 
 it 's just mud and will dry quickly." 
 
 "Mr. Dunn does n't come back, either," said Grace.
 
 266 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 "What can be the matter in there?" 
 
 " Shall I run and see ? " asked Bobby. " Here, Mam- 
 ma, you can hold my light, and I '11 run and see." 
 
 So Bobby ran, and was in his turn swallowed up. 
 
 "I do wonder what Nellie and her husband are doing 
 now! " Mrs. Dunn said. " Oh, no, I don't ; they would 
 be in the dining-car now ; it 's about eight o'clock." 
 
 "I hope that they are having a nice time," said 
 Grace. 
 
 "They are probably just as glad to be gone as we 
 are to have them gone," said Mrs. Dunn (and in that 
 she was quite right). 
 
 They went as far as where the road shuts in between 
 the arching trees, and when they turned to walk back 
 the plain below looked as if many swarms of fireflies 
 had settled here and there. 
 
 "Each village is like a sprinkle of golden ink," 
 Grace said, stopping her companion to see. "Oh, 
 Cousin Lizzie, isn't it all so very, very pretty?" 
 
 "It 's lovely," said Mrs. Dunn; "but what do you 
 suppose has become of these men and that lantern ! 
 We 've been here a quarter of an hour." 
 
 "Shall I go and see?" 
 
 "No, then you won't come back, either." 
 
 Grace laughed. " They were all men," she said ; 
 "I'm a woman. I'll come back." 
 
 "Well, then, dear, do run and see what they are 
 doing there."
 
 FINISHED! 267 
 
 Grace ran. And one minute later she appeared, 
 leading the procession. 
 
 "Is that the lantern?" Mrs. Dunn cried, hi great 
 amazement. 
 
 "It 's the lantern," said Belden, who was bearing 
 it; "look out, don't touch it! I'm so nervous for 
 fear something will happen to it now we 've achieved 
 it. It was in the Boden if you know what that 
 is and a candle had to be cut to fit it, etc., 
 etc." 
 
 " You look just like the Fourth of July, " exclaimed 
 Bobby, jumping about in high glee. "Fourth of 
 July in Dichtenberg ! " 
 
 "Come, Bobby," said his mother, "you run ahead 
 with your light and show Papa and Mamma the 
 way." 
 
 The procession now moved, with Grace and Belden 
 and the lantern bringing up the rear. 
 
 " Fancy their giving you a Chinese paper lantern," 
 said the girl. 
 
 "Fancy their having a Chinese paper lantern to 
 give me," said Belden; "I 'm so afraid it '11 go out 
 or burn up, too." 
 
 "You look so funny," said Grace, laughing she 
 felt very courageous to-night with him somehow. 
 "An expedition with a paper lantern ! I never heard 
 of such a thing." 
 
 "And I feel so darned festive, too," said Belden,
 
 268 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 laughing in his turn. "I feel as if I were celebrating 
 something, only I don't know what." 
 
 They climbed the Burgberg gayly, and found Dunn 
 already negotiating the keys of the tower at the top. 
 
 "Doesn't it all look different at night?" said Mrs. 
 Dunn. "Just see the plain from here." 
 
 "Come on," said her husband; "where 's Bobby?" 
 
 "I 'm right here, Papa. Oh, Mamma, I swallowed 
 a bug!" 
 
 "Bobby ! What kind of a bug?" 
 
 "I don't know. It flew right into me." 
 
 "What shall we do?" Mrs. Dunn asked her hus- 
 band. "Bobby 's swallowed a bug." 
 
 Dunn looked quite severe. "You ought to pay 
 more attention to what Papa tells you, young man," 
 he said, gravely. 
 
 "But you never told me not to swallow a bug, 
 Papa." 
 
 "Well, never mind for this once," said Dunn; 
 "come, Lizzie." 
 
 They passed along by the Burgverliess and the old 
 and crumbling bastions. They entered the shadows 
 and passed in through the old gate. 
 
 "My dear, isn't it interesting, is n't it romantic?" 
 Mrs. Dunn said to Grace. "Why haven't we come 
 up here evenings before? It 's too lovely! Oh, my 
 dear, do you know what Bobby 's done?" Then she 
 told her about the bug, but Grace bore it bravely.
 
 FINISHED ! 269 
 
 Her mind was soaring far above bugs and swallows 
 to-night. 
 
 Dunn unlocked the door to the tower's outer 
 staircase, and stood back to let them all pass through. 
 
 " Oh, my, but I 'm having a good time," said Bobby, 
 plunging ahead with his electric light. 
 
 " Bobby, Bobby, you'll fall through something," 
 cried his mother; "remember, Mamma knows." 
 
 The door opened, and they all went into the pitchy 
 darkness of the tower. 
 
 "Mamma, I know. what this makes you think of, 
 don't I ? " cried Bobby ; " D O N G I N, don't it ? " 
 
 "Bobby, keep by me," cried his mother. "Oh, 
 Bob, do you think this is safe?" 
 
 "Why, of course; it's only dark. There's the 
 stair there in the middle. Come, dear, I '11 show 
 you." 
 
 They went on up with Bobby and his light right 
 with them. Belden and Grace came after with the 
 lantern. It took them longer. 
 
 "Oh," cried Mrs. Dunn, as she came out on top. 
 " Oh ! Oh, Bob ! Oh, Bobby ! Is n't it wonderful ! 
 Isn't it too beautiful?" 
 
 A new moon was rising over the woods towards 
 Oelber, and there was enough of the day's afterglow to 
 throw a fault light in among all the shadowy green 
 masses that stretched away beneath it. The valley 
 of Oelber, one long sweeping train of varying mist
 
 270 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 lines, seemed itself to be drifting slowly westward and 
 turning all that it passed by into silver. The plain 
 lay endlessly to the north, and the stars which studded 
 it were each a tiny hamlet. The forests in the foot- 
 hills of the Harz were coal black, and gave not up 
 their mystery to either the gaze or the description. 
 
 "I '11 never forget this as long as I live," said Mrs. 
 Dunn. " Bobby, you mustn't forget this as long as 
 you live. Remember, dear." 
 
 "And look out you don't lay your lantern down 
 and forget that," cautioned his father. 
 
 Just then Belden and Grace achieved the summit 
 and joined them. 
 
 "Isn't it beautiful?" said Mrs. Dunn. "Did you 
 ever see anything so lovely?" 
 
 " How soft the wind is ! " said Belden ; then he blew 
 out the lantern and laid it back by the stair. "This 
 is fairy-land." 
 
 For a long time they stood in silence, looking off 
 in different directions. 
 
 "What does it make you think of?" Mrs. Dunn 
 said to Belden, as he moved over beside her. 
 
 "Of many things. Of good resolutions mostly." 
 
 "I 've been making good resolutions, too," she said. 
 
 "As a matter of fact, I don't think that any one 
 in particular was to blame," said Belden. "It was 
 Discord with her torch, and we could n't help it." 
 
 " I did try so hard," said Mrs. Dunn, thoughtfully,
 
 FINISHED! 271 
 
 and although there was almost no light where they 
 stood behind the wooden tower, Belden knew that 
 she put up her hand and wiped away tears. 
 
 "Lizzie," said Dunn's voice from the other side, 
 "don't you think we 'd better leave them the keys 
 and take Bobby down? He 's sleepy." 
 
 "No, I 'm not," said Bobby, who was lying on his 
 back on the top of the wall, looking up at the stars. 
 "I just shut my eyes for fun." 
 
 "Yes, let 's go down," said his wife, delighted at 
 her husband's delicate tact. " Come, Bobby dear ; I '11 
 read you a story after you 're in bed. Come, dear." 
 
 Dunn gave Belden the keys. " I '11 tell the man 
 you 're still up here," he said. " I paid for the tickets 
 when I got them." 
 
 "Thank you so much," said Belden, not referring 
 his gratitude to the fifty Pfennige. 
 
 Mr. Dunn, Mrs. Dunn, Bobby, and the electric 
 light then felt their way carefully down the staircases, 
 and ten minutes later Belden and Grace saw what 
 looked like a firefly and a nucleus go waveringly across 
 the open space beneath, pass out of the old Thar, 
 through the Zwinger, and vanish. 
 
 They were left alone ! 
 
 It was one of those strange minutes in We when 
 life seems to cease and nothing exists except some 
 acute sort of perception that nothing exists. Grace 
 clung to the wooden top-rail and gasped for breath,
 
 272 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 she knew that he was going to say something and 
 she felt with more gasps for more breath that 
 it was almost certain what he was going to say. 
 Belden hoped that she could n't hear his heart beat- 
 ing, he had n't expected that a crisis could arise 
 and grip anyone so quickly, he had n't foreseen 
 anything except a visit to the tower, he had n't 
 planned, he had n't thought, he had n't ar- 
 ranged, Heavens ! 
 
 "We've got it all to ourselves now!" A hollow 
 voice, which he recognized at once as his own, was 
 speaking. "Isn't it a wonderful night?" 
 
 Grace gathered all her self-possession into a single 
 very weak "Yes." 
 
 "For a little while the whole world is ours alone," 
 the independent voice continued, "all this gor- 
 geous view and everything it 's just ours alone." 
 
 He felt that that was n't so bad although noth- 
 ing which he would have voluntarily chosen to say. 
 
 "Y-yes," said Grace. She thought that she should 
 faint or burst into tears. 
 
 He took her hand then. "You must be so very 
 tired," he said tenderly. 
 
 Her lip quivered. She did n't know what to say. 
 
 "Your hand is quite cold," said the man, getting 
 more and more original in his remarks. 
 
 "Y-yes," said the girl, and half turned away. 
 Belden knew that the minute was struck, he thought
 
 FINISHED ! 273 
 
 of ten thousand things but could n't think what to 
 do next, so he put his arm around her. 
 
 " You mus' n't," she murmured very weakly in- 
 deed, and then he whispered, 
 
 "Have you had time to think about all that I said 
 to-day there in the woods? " 
 
 She wondered if he could hear her heart beating 
 and he never ceased wondering if she could hear his, 
 but she made no answer. 
 
 "Are you cold?" he asked. 
 
 No answer. 
 
 " You 're trembling." 
 
 No answer. 
 
 "Won't you answer me?" 
 
 She did n't know what to do. It is small wonder 
 that so many girls accept their first offer for very 
 few have sufficient presence of mind to know any- 
 thing else to do with it. 
 
 "Won't you answer me?" Belden asked again. 
 
 The poor thing looked overhead and down below, 
 but not a rabbit came to her aid. Her hand was 
 being held, he had his arm around her waist, and 
 and and she liked him so much ! To be sure, he 
 was the first marriageable man she had ever known, 
 but he had appealed strongly to her and and she 
 really thought - 
 
 "Is your mother American enough to let me ask 
 you questions now or must I wait?" asked the man. 
 
 18
 
 274 JUST BETWEEN THEMSELVES 
 
 She made a mighty effort "I don't know," she 
 said feebly, " oh, don't don't 
 
 "Don't what?" 
 
 ("Don't what?" is surely the hardest worked 
 question in the Dictionary of Interrogation.) 
 
 "Oh, p-pkase don't." 
 
 "You must answer me, you shall." 
 
 It takes so little assertion to overcome a woman. 
 
 "W-well, what is it?" 
 
 "May I write to her to-morrow? Just tell me 
 that?" There was a sort of silence a kind of 
 silence, broken and then unbroken and then together 
 again. An odd silence. 
 
 "I '11 write to-morrow," Belden announced after 
 a while, apparently having settled the question for 
 himself. 
 
 Grace gasped. It was all too wonderful. To 
 think ! - 
 
 They started down-stairs after a long while. Belden 
 dropped the lantern and Grace lost the matches, but 
 they got down and out at last. 
 
 "I shall never forget this tower," the man said as 
 he locked the door. 
 
 "Hasn't it been a wonderful fortnight?" Grace 
 said. "I never was so happy in all my life before." 
 
 "Of course / think it's been Paradise," Belden 
 said, preparing to guide her safely onward. 
 
 And down in the Kurhaus Bobby, being tucked
 
 FINISHED ! 275 
 
 up by his mother, was voicing much the same 
 thing. 
 
 "My, but I 'm glad we came here!" he said 
 sleepily. 
 
 "Do you know, dear," Mrs. Dunn said to her hus- 
 band later, " I really think that we shall always re- 
 member this little outing as long as we live. It 's 
 been so pleasant ! " 
 
 She probably meant it in fact, I 'm quite sure 
 that she did, being a truthful woman. 
 
 Mr. Dunn who was unfastening his collar 
 nodded. But the best of all was Mrs. Ellerslie who 
 in the green and gold kimono was brushing out 
 her hair. 
 
 "Frank," she said, "do you know I 'm so glad you 
 persuaded me into accepting Lizzie's proposition. 
 Now that it 's all over and by I can see that it 's been 
 a very good thing all around." 
 
 "Yes," said Ellerslie, who was hunting for his 
 toilet things in that luxurious wealth of space pro- 
 vided by a European sleeper, "Well by George !" 
 
 "What is it?" asked his wife. 
 
 "Why, if here is n't Belden's " he stopped. 
 
 "You can mail it back to him," said his wife, tact- 
 fully, "and now do hurry, dear, I 'm so sleepy."
 
 Neiv Edition with Pictures from the Play 
 
 THE REJUVENATION 
 OF AUNT MARY 
 
 By ANNE WARNER 
 
 Author of " Susan Clegg and Her Friend Mrs. Lathrop,* 
 
 "A. Woman's Will," etc. 
 Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth. $1.50 
 
 Always amusing and ends in a burst of sunshine. Phil- 
 adelphia Ledger. 
 
 Impossible to read without laughing. A sparkling, 
 hilarious tale. Chicago Record-Herald. 
 
 The love story is as wholesome and satisfactory as the 
 fun. In its class this book must be accorded the first 
 place. Baltimore Sun. 
 
 The humor is simply delicious. Albany Times-Union. 
 
 Every one that remembers Susan Clegg will wish also to 
 make the acquaintance of Aunt Mary. Her "imperious 
 will and impervious eardrums " furnish matter for uproar- 
 ious merriment. ... A book to drive away the blues 
 and make one well content with the worst weather. 
 Pittsburg Gazette. 
 
 Cheerful, crisp, and bright. The comedy is sweetened 
 by a satisfying love tale. Boston Herald. 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, & CO., PUBLISHERS 
 34 BEACON STREET, BOSTON
 
 Anne Warners "Susan Clegg" Books 
 
 SUSAN CLEGG AND HER 
 FRIEND MRS. LATHROP 
 
 By ANNE WARNER 
 With Frontispiece, $1.00 
 
 Nothing better in the new homely philosophy style 
 of fiction has been written. San Francisco Bulletin. 
 
 One of the most genuinely humorous books ever written. 
 St. Louis Globe-Democrat. 
 
 Anything more humorous than the Susan Clegg stories 
 would be hard to find. The Critic, New York. 
 
 By the Same Author : 
 
 SUSAN CLEGG AND HER 
 NEIGHBORS' AFFAIRS 
 
 With Frontispiece, $1.00 
 
 All the stories brim over with quaint humor, caustic 
 sarcasm, and concealed contempt for male and matrimonial 
 chains. Philadelphia Ledger. 
 
 SUSAN CLEGG AND A MAN IN 
 THE HOUSE 
 
 Illustrated by ALICE BARBER STEPHENS. $1.50 
 
 Susan is a positive joy, and the reading world owes 
 Anne Warner a vote of thanks for her contribution to 
 the list of American humor. New York Times. 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, & CO., PUBLISHERS 
 34 BEACON STREET, BOSTON
 
 Anne Warner's Latest Character Creation 
 
 IN A 
 MYSTERIOUS WAY 
 
 By ANNE WARNER 
 Illustrated by J. V. McFall. Cloth. $1.50 
 
 A story of love and sacrifice that teems with the 
 author's original humor. Baltimore American. 
 
 A story of unusual merit, but which is oddly com- 
 pounded of amusing studies of human nature in a rural 
 community and a romantic tragedy of the most exalted 
 type. San Francisco Chronicle. 
 
 To the colloquially eccentric and amusing company of 
 " Susan Clegg " and " Aunt Mary " this book adds " Mrs. 
 Ray," a character as distinctive and quaint as her prede- 
 cessors. Chicago Evening Post. 
 
 Likely to be as successful as her ever popular "Reju- 
 venation of Aunt Mary," of which several large editions 
 have been demanded. . . . Mrs. Ray is perhaps the most 
 delicious creation Anne Warner has thus far produced. 
 Washington Herald- 
 
 The best, as it is the most sustained work we have had 
 from this author as yet. Detroit Free Press. 
 
 The humor peculiar to her pen is here in wonted 
 strength, but in a new guise ; and set against it, or inter- 
 woven with it, is a story of love and the strange sacrifice 
 of which a few loving hearts are capable. New York 
 American. 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, & CO., PUBLISHERS 
 34 BEACON STREET, BOSTON
 
 Anne Warner s Latest Character Creation 
 
 IN A 
 MYSTERIOUS WAY 
 
 By ANNE WARNER 
 Illustrated by J. V. McFall. Cloth. $1.50 
 
 A story of love and sacrifice that teems with the 
 author's original humor. Baltimore American. 
 
 The humor peculiar to her pen is here in wonted 
 strength, but in a new guise ; and set against it, or inter- 
 woven with it, is a story of love and the strange sacrifice 
 of which a few loving hearts are capable. New York 
 American. 
 
 By the same author 
 
 YOUR CHILD AND MINE 
 
 Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth. $1.50 
 
 The child heart, strange and sweet and tender, lies open 
 to this sympathetic writer, and other human hearts and 
 eyes should be opened by her narratives. Chicago 
 Record-Herald. 
 
 The literary charm of the stories is not the least of their 
 attractions. The interest is all the greater for the style 
 in which the story is told, and the author's sympathy with 
 her young friends lends a vital warmth to her narrative. 
 Philadelphia Public Ledger. 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, & CO., PUBLISHERS 
 34 BEACON STREET, BOSTON
 
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