"We're never going to grow old and gnarled, Jeany."
"I'll come and stick a little green leaf on your deadest bough."
"Better give it to me now." Gregory turned her lips to his and kissed her. "That was a nice little leaf," he whispered.
They rambled on again, turning up dead leaves for the small celandine that peeped out in surprise that spring was really come. As they turned to go back, the clang of a bell, mellowed by distance, reached them.
"I'll race you." They started, Jean a yard ahead. In a moment Gregory was in front of her. He shook his head reprovingly.
"Why, Jean Herrick, I'm astonished! What would Dr. Fenninger say?"
"Put me under observation in a psychopathic ward."
Gregory kissed her in the hollow of her throat.
"For that, he'd commit me to Matteawan."
The midday dinner was a heavy affair, but both Jean and Gregory won Mrs. Morrison's approval by their appetites.