“Finally Emily spoke.  ’You are as mean and hateful as you can be, Rodney Carter,’ she said, burrowing more deeply into his shoulder.  ’And I despise you.  And I am going to marry you, too, just to get even with you.  Give me back my engagement ring.’  Rodney ecstatically did.  The touch of her lovely, material body must have thrilled him, for he kissed her all over the top of the head, her face being hidden.

“I stood my ground.  I was looking for literary material since I never have a chance to make romance for myself.  Emily spoke again.

“’I know now that the Vast Infinite intends us for each other.  I have been dwelling in Perfect Harmony the last four days, trusting the All Perfection to bring us together again.  So I know that our union was decreed from the foundation by the Universal sphere.  I tell you, Rod, you can’t get ahead of the Infinite.’

“Then I went to my own room, and they never knew when I left,—­they didn’t even remember I had been there.  But as I came back from answering the phone at eleven o’clock, I met Rod in the hall.  He had some books in his hand.  He ducked them behind him when he saw me.  I reached for them sternly, and he pulled them out rather sheepishly.  I read the titles, ‘Spheral Mentality,’ ‘Infinite Spheres,’ ’Spheral Harmony.’

“’Made me promise to read ’em, too,’ he confided in a whisper.  ’And by George, she is worth it.’

“Oh, I tell you, Carol, these boarding-houses are chuck full of literary material.  Really, I am developing.  I know it.  I feel it every day.  I rub elbows with every one I meet, and I like it.  I don’t care if they aren’t ‘My Kind’ at all.  I am learning to reach down to the same old human nature back of all the different kinds.  Isn’t that growth?

“You asked about the millionaire’s son.  He still comes to see me every once in a while.  He says he can’t promise to let me spend all of his millions for missions if I marry him,—­says he has too much fun spending them on himself,—­but he insists that I may do whatever I like with him.  Isn’t it too bad I can’t feel called upon to take him in hand?

“Anyhow, if I had a million dollars do you know what I would do?  Buy an orphans’ home, and dump ’em all in a big ship and go sailing, sailing over the bounding main.  I’d kidnap Julia and take her along.

“He was here last week, and sent his love to you, and best wishes to David.  He told me to ask particularly how your complexion gets along out in the sunny mesa land.

“I want to see you.  I am saving up my pennies religiously, and when they have multiplied sufficiently I am coming.  Thanks for the invitation.

“Lovingly as always,

“Connie.”

CHAPTER XVIII

QUIESCENT