She never existed anyway outside of a story-book. I simply don't like Howard enough—for that."
The two friends were walking slowly through the great deserted rooms.
"How do you know?"
"If I did I should be satisfied. Love is the one thing in which there should be no doubts."
A queer look came into Mrs. Kent's face.
"That is very foolish. Do you mean that you, like the old novel-writers, think of love as one long, untroubled, mutual spasm?"
"I sha'n't tell," answered Anne, laughing.
"'He clasped her in his arms in one long ecstasy' no longer serves as a solution of that problem. Don't let a Fireside Companion ideal keep you from the happiness of your life."
"I've never seen the Fireside Companion," Anne remarked loftily.
"Neither have I," said Mrs. Kent with a smile. "Intellectual women are queer. You are twenty-seven years old, but in
