Hurrying, because of the hour, she pulled her blue linen skirts over the fence, and dropped lightly upon the other side.  She ran along the lane to the flowers, stopped to admire, but refused to pick them, telling them they were better where they were, and would droop before she could get them home.  Then she went swiftly on around a bend in the cart-path, catching the faint sound of falling water, and impelled to seek its source, just as is every one at hearing that suggestive sound.  And, of course, the water was farther away than it sounded.

A trifle short of breath, from her haste, she ran it down at last, and came upon it—­a series of small waterfalls down which a small stream tumbled recklessly along a vagrant watercourse, seeming to care little when it reached its destination, so that it contrived to have plenty of fun and exercise by the way.  And on the bank, stretched recumbent, hands clasped under head, lay a long figure in gray flannels, a straw hat and a book at its side.

Charlotte stopped short.  The figure turned its head, sat up, and got rather quickly to its feet, pushing back a heavy, dark lock of hair which had fallen across a tanned forehead.  Dr. John Leaver came forward.

“I’m so sorry I disturbed you,” said Charlotte Ruston, finding words at last, after having been surprised out of speech by the sudden apparition, “I hope I didn’t wake you from a nap.”

“You haven’t disturbed me, and I was not asleep.  I’m only waiting for Dr. Burns, who may come now at any minute.  This is a pleasant place to meet in, isn’t it?”

Their hands met, each looked with swift, straight scrutiny into the face of the other, and then hands and eyes parted abruptly.  When they regarded each other after that, it was as two casual acquaintances may exchange glances, in the course of conversation, when other things are of more interest than the personal relation.

“Indeed it is pleasant—­charming!  The path lured me on and on, I couldn’t stop.  I ought to be at home this minute.  Did you walk so far?  Mrs. Burns told me you were here, and that you had been ill.  I was very sorry, and I’m now so glad to see you looking so well.”

“Thank you.  I am much myself again, but not yet quite equal to a walk of this distance.  Dr. Burns and his car are just a few rods away, on the other side of this bit of woods.  He has a patient in a little shack over there, and brought me along to see this spot.  It was worth coming for.”

“You must enjoy Dr. Burns very much.”

“We are old friends, and being together again after a nine-years’ separation, is a thing to make the most of.”

“I should think so.  He seems so alive, so full of interest in every living thing.  He must be a fine comrade.”

“The finest in the world.  To me there is nobody like him, and most people who know him, I’ve noticed, feel in the same way.  He has a beautiful wife.  She is a friend of yours, she tells me.”