"It doesn't seem in strict good breeding to pursue ladies one doesn't know."
"Why, bless you, I chased all over Europe after a face I saw in The Sketch, only to find out that she was willing to marry anybody with money and had a voice like a guinea-hen. And after I'd found that out, she chased me all over Europe and as far East as Cairo."
"I've never been chased by a woman," said Jonstone a little wistfully. "What happened in the end?"
"I left Cairo between two days, fled away into the desert with some people just stepped out of the Bible, and never came back."
"Suppose she hadn't been willing to marry you and had had a voice like a dove?"
"Don't suppose. We are on a new quest."
"What is the Adirondacks?"
"We wouldn't think much of it in the South. It's a place where you are always cool and clean and can drink the nearest water. The trout don't eat mud and haven't got long white whiskers, and the deer are bigger than dogs, and you don't go to sleep at night. The night just comes and puts you to sleep. It's just like Bar Harbor—only a little more so in some ways and a little less so in others."
Jonstone spread The Four Seasons wide open upon his knees.
"Let's agree right now," he said, "which each of us thinks is the prettiest. It would be dreadful after travelling so far if we were both to pick on the same one."