VALLEY

CHAPTER XXXIITwo STUBBORN PEOPLEROSEMARY WEST, on her way home from amusic lesson at Ingleside, turned aside to thehidden spring in Rainbow Valley. She had not beenthere all summer; the beautiful little spot had no longerany allurement for her. The spirit of her young lovernever came to the tryst now ;and the memories connectedwith John Meredith were too painful and poignantBut she had happened to glance backward upthe valley and had seen Norman Douglas vaulting asairily as a stripling over the old stone dykeof theBailey garden and thought he was on his way up thehill. If he overtook her she would have to walk homewith him and she was not goingto do that.So sheslipped at once behind the maples of the spring, hopinghe had not seen her and would pass on.But Norman had seen her and, what was more, wasof her. He had been wanting for some timein pursuitto have a talk with Rosemary, but she had always,so it seemed, avoided him. Rosemary had never, atany time, liked Norman Douglas very well.His bluster,his temper, his noisy hilarity, had always antago-she had often wondered hownized her. Long ago312