's time I heard how
you came to be here. I haven't been able to explain it, during the
intervals when I've had any chance at all to think about it."

"Oh, I just called up your mother to know if it would help you any to be
taken to your train," said Ruth quickly, "and she mentioned that she was
worried lest you would miss it; so I suggested that we try to catch you
and take you on to Wilmington or Baltimore or wherever you have to go. I
do hope this delay hasn't spoiled it all. How long does it take to go
from Baltimore to camp. I've taken the Baltimore trip myself in five
hours. It's only quarter past six yet, do you think we can make it?"

"But you can't go all the way to Baltimore!" he exclaimed. "What would
you and mother do at that time of night alone after I go to camp? You
see, it isn't as if I could stay and come back with you."

"Oh, we'll just go to a hotel in Baltimore, won't we, Mrs. Cameron? We'll
be all right if we only get you safe to camp. Do you think we can do it?"

"Oh, yes, we can do it all right with this car. But I'm quite sure I
ought not to let you do it just for me. What will your people think?"

"I've left word that I've gone to a friend in trouble," twinkled Ruth.
"I'll call them up when I get to Baltimore, and make it all right with
Auntie. She will trust me."

Cameron turned and looked at her wonderingly, reverently.

"It's wonderful that you should do this for me," he said in a low tone,
quite low, so that the watching wistful mother could not even guess what
he was saying.

"It's not in the least wonderful," said Ruth brightly. "Remember the
hedge and Chuck Woodcock!" She was beginning to get her self possession
again.

"You are paying that old score back in compound interest," said Cameron.

That was a wonderful ride rushing along beneath the stars, going back to
childhood's days and getting acquainted again where they left off. Ruth
forgot all about the cause of her wild chase, and the two young men she
had left disconsolate in her library at home; forgot her own world in
this new beautiful one, wherein her spirit really communed with another
spirit; forgot utterly what Wainwright had said about Cameron as more and
more through their talk she came to see the fineness of his character.

They flashed on from one little village to another, leaving one
clustering glimmer of lights in the distance only to pass to other
clustering groups. It was in their favor that there were not ma