eyes flew to each other's faces. Evan saw--well, he was not
disappointed. His instinct had rightly told him in the dark that she
was adorable. Not regularly beautiful; the most charming women are
not. There were fascinating contradictions. The bright hair was
gloriously red: the eyes too large for her face and brown,
extraordinary eyes revealing a strong soul. They were capable both of
melting and of flashing, but especially of flashing; the soul was
imperious. As for the rest of her, the dear straight little nose was
non-committal, the mouth fresh and childlike, with a slight, appealing
droop in the corners. In short, Nature the great experimentalist had
in this case endowed a most sweet and kissable little body with the
soul of a warrior.

Evan could not have argued this all out, but his inner self perceived
it. His feelings as he gazed at her were mixed. The dear little
thing! the enchanting playmate; his arms fairly ached to gather her in.
At the same time the deeper sight was whispering to him that this was
no playmate for a man's idleness, but a soul as strong as his own--or
stronger, to whom he must yield all or nothing, and he was afraid.

As for her, she simply looked at him inscrutably. He could not tell if
she were pleased with what she saw.

Finally self-consciousness returned to both with a rush. They blushed
and turned from each other.

"You must go now," the girl said gently.

He understood from her tone that she did not greatly desire him to go,
but that it was up to him to find a reason for staying.

"Let me help you get your things in order," he said eagerly. "You
can't shove trunks and furniture around."

She hesitated, thinking perhaps of the censorious landlady.

Evan made haste to follow up his advantage. "This trunk. Where will
you have it put?"

She gave in to him with the ghost of a shrug. "It has nothing in it
that I shall want," she said. "Shove it as far back in the closet as
it will go."

In the closet her dresses were already hanging. The delicate perfume
he had already remarked made his head swim again. As he bent down to
shove the trunk back, her skirts brushed his cheek like a caress. They
were burning when he came out. Perhaps she guessed; at any rate she
quickly turned her head.

"You don't want the sofa in the middle of the room," Evan said to
create a diversion.

"Put it with its back against the fireplace, please. I shall not be
having a fire fo