a road-agent or a robber, and when you weren't
holding me or Minervy for ransom, I was generally leading you over some
most ungodly trails, saving you from posses and things. I used," said
Billy Louise, forcing a laugh, "to have some wild old times with you,
believe me! So when you told your name, why--it was just like--you
know; it was exactly like having a doll come to life!"

He eyed her fixedly until she tingled with nervousness.

"Yes--and what about--understanding all about it? Do you?" He drew in
his under lip, let it go, and drew it again between his teeth, while he
frowned at her thoughtfully. "Do you understand all about it?" he
insisted, leaning toward her and never once taking that boring gaze
from her face.

"I--well, I--do--some of it anyway." Billy Louise lifted a hand
spasmodically to her throat. This was digging deeper into the agonies
of life than she had ever gone before. "What was in the paper," she
whispered later, as if his eyes were drawing it from her by force.

"What was that? What did it say?"

"I--I--what difference does it make, what it said?" Billy Louise
turned imploring eyes upon him. Her breath was coming fast and uneven.
"It doesn't matter--to me--in the least. It--didn't say much.
I--can't tell exactly--" She was growing white around the mouth. The
horror of being compelled to say, out loud--and to him!

"I didn't know there was a woman in the world like you," Ward said
irrelevantly and looked into the fire. "I thought women were just soft
things a man had to take care of and carry along through life, a dead
weight when they weren't worse. I never knew a woman could be a
friend--the kind of friend a man can be." He threw his cigarette into
the fire and watched the paper shrivel swiftly and the tobacco turn
into a thin, blue smoke-spiral.

"Life's a queer thing," he said, taking a different angle. "I started
out with big notions about the things I'd do. Maybe I started wrong,
but for a kid with nobody to point the trail for him, I don't think I
did so worse--till old Dame Fortune spotted me in the crowd and
proceeded to use me for a football." He leaned an elbow on one knee
and stared hard at a burning brand that was getting ready to fall and
send up a stream of sparks. Then he turned his head quite unexpectedly
and looked at Billy Louise. "What was it you read?" he asked abruptly.

"I--don't like to--say it," she whispered unsteadily.

"Well, you needn't