g in another ten seconds.

"I see." Ward spoke dully, evenly, and he still stared at the
coffee-pot with that gimlet gaze of his that made Billy Louise want to
scream. "I see a whole lot that I'd been shutting my eyes to. Why
don't you feel insulted--"

"Ward Warren, if you're going to act like a--a--" I suspect that Billy
Louise, in her desperation, was tempted to use a swear word, but she
resisted the temptation. She got up and went around to him, hesitated
while she looked down at his set face, drew a long breath, and blinked
back some tears of self-reproach because of the devils of memory she
had unwittingly turned loose to jibe at this man.

"This is why," she said softly; and leaning, she pressed her lips down
upon his bitter ones and let them lie there for a dozen heart-beats.

Ward's face relaxed, and his eyes went to hers with the hungry
tenderness she had seen so often there. He leaned his head against her
and threw up an arm to clasp her close. He did not say a word.

"After I have kissed a man," said Billy Louise, struggling back to her
old whimsical manner, "it won't be a bit polite for him to have any
doubts of my feelings toward him, or my belief in him, or his belief in
himself." Her fingers tangled themselves in his hair, just where the
wave was the most pronounced.

She had drawn the poison. Now she set herself to restore a perfectly
normal atmosphere.

"He's going to be just exactly the same good pal he was before," she
went on, speaking softly. "And he's going to bring some water so I can
wash the dishes, and then bring Blue so I can go home, and he isn't
going to say a single thing more about--anything that matters two
whoops."

Ward's clasp tightened and then grew loose. He drew a long breath and
let her go.

"You do like me--a little bit, don't you?" His eyes were like the eyes
of the damned asking for water.

"I like you two little bits." Billy Louise took his face between her
two palms and smiled down at him bravely, with the pure candor that was
a part of her. "But I don't want us to be anything but pals; not for a
long while. It's so good, just being friends. And once we get away
from that point, we can't go back to it again, ever. And I'm sure it's
good enough to be worth while making it last as long as we can. So
now--"

"It's going to be quite a contract, Wilhemina." Ward still looked at
her with his heart in his eyes.

"Oh, no, it won't! You've had lots