shifted the sentence awkwardly: "I was afraid you
might think that I was--that I didn't come because I might have been
the same way again that I was when--when I met you at the station?"

"Oh no!" she answered, gently. "No. I knew better."

"And do you know," he faltered, "that that is all over? That it can
never happen again?"

"Yes, I know it," she returned, quickly.

"Then you know a little of what I owe you."

"No, no," she protested.

"Yes," he said. "You've made that change in me already. It wasn't
hard--it won't be--though it might have been if--if you hadn't come
soon."

"Tell me something," she demanded. "If these people had not sent for
you yesterday, would you have come to Judge Pike's house to see me?
You said you would try." She laughed a little, and looked away from
him. "I want to know if you would have come."

There was a silence, and in spite of her averted glance she knew that
he was looking at her steadily. Finally, "Don't you know?" he said.

She shook her head and blushed faintly.

"Don't you know?" he repeated.

She looked up and met his eyes, and thereupon both became very grave.
"Yes, I do," she answered. "You would have come. When you left me at
the gate and went away, you were afraid. But you would have come."

"Yes,--I'd have come. You are right. I was afraid at first; but I
knew," he went on, rapidly, "that you would have come to the gate to
meet me."

"You understood that?" she cried, her eyes sparkling and her face
flushing happily.

"Yes. I knew that you wouldn't have asked me to come," he said, with a
catch in his voice which was half chuckle, half groan, "if you hadn't
meant to take care of me! And it came to me that you would know how to
do it."

She leaned back in her chair, and again they laughed together, but only
for a moment, becoming serious and very quiet almost instantly.

"I haven't thanked you for the roses," he said.

"Oh yes, you did. When you first looked at them!"

"So I did," he whispered. "I'm glad you saw. To find them here took my
breath away--and to find you with them--"

"I brought them this morning, you know."

"Would you have come if you had not understood why I failed yesterday?"

"Oh yes, I think so," she returned, the fine edge of a smile upon her
lips. "For a time last evening, before I heard what had happened, I
thought you were too frightened a friend to bother about."

He made a little ejaculation, partly joyful