d and helped the other woman to her feet, and still in silence the three of us walked along until we came to an easy rise where I

w I sat unheeding, burning with an unreasoning and sullen resentment. I knew that I was a fool. What possible difference could it make to me if the acquaintance of a merry week and a few more intimate hours chose to hide a wedding-ring in her breast. It certainly was no business of mine, nor could she owe me any explanation. Yet I wanted explanation more than anything else in the world. It certainly could not be

showed the determination of some hidden thought. The blue of a little bruise had begun to show near her temple. A wave of tenderness swept over me, the pity of a man for a woman tired and

tion had been unbroken. "Of c

ook he

put up there for the night and go on in the morning. In fact, I am pretty tired, m

to be taken all the way home. I don't generally mind the dark, but I suppose that we were a good deal shaken up. There

the present moment, and you know it. Nothing is mor

appeals to him. We will leave the asking to mother. If she can she will want you to stay. If she can't, well the inn is not so bad after all. There it is,

tal journey. Our companion in misfortune, who had chosen a seat by herself, scarcely looked up. It was no great walk to the house and present

nervously from the shadow. Miss Tabor put her hand upon my arm. "

The soft sibilance of her whispered words and the startling rumble of his bass came to me indistinctly, mer

"I didn't mean to keep you so lon

to find myself angry. So as we climbed the s

he room was very large indeed, floored with dull red tile, paneled in dark oak; a great Dutch fireplace, filled with flowers, breathed fragrance. Opening from the room's far end, and raised thre

made you so late?" She flung herself into Mi

ar," she laughed. "Let me introduce Mr. Crosby, without whose help I sh

husband, who had followed her more slowly. He was a florid

outline. And indeed, in the more intimate light I found her looking more her years, pretty and soft and doll-like, but too delicate a vessel for any great strength of spirit, a sweet little woman, affectionate and inconsequent. Her words came quickly and with a certain merry insistence, but with little nervous pauses that were alm

firmation of surprising understatements. She seemed for some reason very anxious to hide a possible seriousness in the matter, and her first brief, pleading glance bound me

e manner of her bearing. I wondered idly as they talked what the M. stood for, sure in my heart that it, too, was graceful and fitting. And as "Lady" told of the beauty of the meadow where we had been delayed "almost two hou

er was already beginning to show through even the vivacity of her acting. For my part, I had no inclination to sit in the family circle that she left. I,

Mrs. Tabor. "There is a bed just waiting for tired young

to her father. He paused an uncomfortabl

are to stay h

bor, with another glance at his daughter, took my bag himself, and, his hand upon my shoulder, fairly bore me off to my room. I was too comfortably tired to lie long awake, even with so eventful a day to turn over in retrospect. As I floated downward into the dark through a flood of incongruous images, gre

surroundings, I was aware of smothered commotion. People were awake and in trouble; the house was full of swishing garments and the hurry of uncomfortable feet. Some one passed my door swiftly, carrying a light, whose rays swept through the cracks and swung uncannily across the ceiling. Another door opened somewhere, letting out a blur of voices, among which I seemed to distinguish the bass growl of the man at the gate. My first thought was of fire; and with

reasonable. Fire was by this time out of the question; and an accident or practical joke would have been evident by now. Meanwhile, the muffled turmoil of the house continued. A man's voice and a woman's broke into inarticulate altercation, and presently I thought I heard a cry and a sound like the fall of something soft and heavy. I sprang to the door again and shook it with all my strength, but it was so solidly fitted that it did not even rattle. Then some

!" she wailed. "What

he tone. The whisper grew more volubly urgent, while her replies hesi

by-are yo

answered. "What has h

. Will you come down-stairs as

f a minute. Wha

gone. I dressed with a haste that made my fingers clumsy, and ran dow

see only that she was wrapped in something long and dark, her hair gathered into a

," she began in a quick under

broke in. "Is it burglary, or

or you to remain here any longer. You must go away-now, at once, and without knowing or asking anything. Of course there's a good reason,

e this minute-in the

hink about us at all! There's nothing the matter. I ought to have known.

ask no questions. Only tell me when I can see you again, and if there

the man I had seen at the gate ti

d swiftly and quietly up-stairs. She turned to

nderstand? The only help you can give is to go-go away utterly and forget all about it as if yo

I said. "What a

ng and returned with my suit-case, closed and st

. "Promise me not t

of undiscoverable depths. The dark wrap she wore lost itself downward in long, fading lines; and all the hidden form and the nameless fragrance of her were wonderfully the same, one with midnight and midsummer. As I took her hand, I do not know what agony of restraint held my arms from around her; only I kept

y!" she cried.

-God bless you!" And even as I turned on the thre