She cast one of her most fascinating glances at her unmoved host.
"Just the thing. How shall we divide up?" And Mrs. Lenox looked vaguely
around.
"Miss Elton and I," said Norris boldly, "are going to row, just as we
used last summer."
Madeline glanced sidewise at him with some astonishment, as he made this
radical statement, but although she pondered a moment, she offered no
objection. Dick also glanced at him longingly as he said "last summer".
Our lives seem made of little bits that have small relation with each
other. Things just happen. And yet, when we look back over a long
stretch we realize that life is a coherent whole, that it leads
somewhere, and Dick's life had led a long way in the past year. So he
too became grave but said nothing, as he resigned himself to a back seat
beside Mrs. Lenox and watched Lena perched airily beside her host.
"Now I hope that matter will be amicably settled," Mrs. Lenox began,
looking with a satisfied air at the two unmarried people who were
starting toward the boat-house.
"What!" Dick exclaimed with a sudden start.
"Are you a bat that you can not see daylight facts?" she cried, turning
upon him.
"I dare say I am." And he looked very sober. "Yes, I suppose it is all
right. Norris is one of those fellows who always knows what he wants,
and just plods along until he gets it."
* * * * * "I said 'row'," Ellery remarked as he pushed the boat out from shore,
"but I meant 'loaf and invite the soul'. The sunlight is too delectable
for anything strenuous."
"But inviting the soul is always a solitary experience," objected
Madeline.
"Perhaps. But it is delightful to know that there is a sister soul also
inviting herself close at hand. I hope yours will accept the invitation.
'At home--the soul of Mr. Ellery Norris, to meet the soul of Miss
Madeline Elton'."
A soft flush rose over Madeline's face and she devoted herself to the
tiller ropes.
"P.S. Please come," Ellery went on with a laugh. "R.S.V.P."
"Aren't you 'flouting old ends'?" she smiled.
"I hoped I was flouting new beginnings," he answered soberly, and he
rowed languidly in a silence which Madeline rushed to fill.
"I've been thinking ever since last night about Dick," she said. "He is
so different from the buoyant creature of last summer. And it is only a
year."
"Well, perhaps this is a phase." He rested on his oars and looked at
her. "Dick is healthy, and joy is his normal state. He ought to be able
to recover from his malady."
"Sometimes I think it is permanent."
"I am almost afraid, too. But you see you can not get any bargains in
the department store of this world. You have to pay full price for
everything. If you want self-indulgence, you have to pay your health; if
you want health, you have to pay self-control. You never pay less than
the value of what you get, and you are often horribly over-charged for a
very inferior article. Now Dick wanted Lena Quincy. He bought a little
gratification, and paid--"