pidity. Sorry I messed things up for you, but me intintions was good, and I'm not harboring any ill will; so if you get into any more pilikias in your role of knight to the lady, just let me know, and I'll fly to the rescue, same as ever. Now let's have tea."
And Dick appreciatively drew up his chair and devoured buttered toast while he checked up with Bert on some of the mynah bird observations which she had been making for him. "Gee!" he said, at last, "You certainly are the finest chum that ever happened. If all women had as much sense as you have, we'd reach a mental millennium in about three generations." A statement to which Bert acquiesced with grinning enthusiasm and then dared him to a swim before he went back up the mountain.
And very soon again, Dick was living in his Land O'Dreams; shutting out all thought of possibly empty tomorrows, in the joy of todays full of the rapturous devotion of an all-absorbing love. And yet, close as their comradeship had become, he never put into words the faintest hint of his feeling toward her. The time had not come. He did not, himself, know what he was going to do about it and he feared to precipitate anything for which he was not prepared—which he would not know how to meet when it came, and concerning which he had no idea of her own attitude. She permitted the easy
