eager terrier. "So if you just--could, Mr. Barton!" she began all over again. "And oh, I know it couldn't be any real bother to you!" she hastened to reassure him. "Because after Saturday, you know, I'll probably never--never be in America again!" "Then what satisfaction," laughed Barton, "could you possibly get in filling up an attic with things that you will never see again?" "What satisfaction?" repeated little Eve Edgarton perplexedly. "What satisfaction?" Between her placid brows a very black frown deepened. "Why, just the satisfaction," she said, "of knowing before you die, that you had definitely diverted to your own personality that much specific treasure out of the--out of the--world's chaotic maelstrom of generalities." "Eh?" said Barton. "What? For Heaven's sake say it again!" "Why--just the satisfaction--" began Eve Edgarton. Then abruptly the sullen lines grayed down again around her mouth. "It seems funny to me, Mr. Barton," she almost whined, "that anybody as big as you are--shouldn't be able to understand anybody as little as--I am. But if I only had an attic!" she cried out with apparent irrelevance. "Oh, if just once in my whole life I could have even so much as an atticful of home! Oh, please--please--please, Mr. Barton!" she pleaded. "Oh, please!" Precipitously she lifted her small brown face to his, and in her eyes he saw the strangest little unfinished expression flame up suddenly and go out again, a little fleeting expression so sweet, so shy, so transcendently lovely, that if it had ever lived to reach her frowning brow, her sulky little mouth, her--! Then startlingly into his stare, into his amazement, broke a great white glare through the opening of the cave. "My God!" he winced, with his elbow across his eyes. "Why, it isn't lightning!" laughed little Eve Edgarton. "It's the moon!" Quick as a sprite she flashed to her feet and ran out into the moonlight. "We can go home now!" she called back triumphantly over her shoulder. "Oh, we can, can we?" snapped Barton. His nerves were strangely raw. He struggled to his knees, and tottered there watching the cheeky little moonbeams lap up the mystery of the cave, and scare the yellow lantern-flame into a mere sallow glow. Poignantly from the forest he heard Eve Edgarton's voice calling out