ot
the faintest doubt of her ability to keep him at a due distance if it
appeared necessary.

"Oh," she taunted, "you only say things."

Hawtrey laughed, and stooping down packed up a package he had brought
from the store.

"Well," he said, "after all, I think I'd rather try to please you." He
opened the package. "Are these things very much too big for you, Sally?"

The girl's eyes glistened at the sight of the mittens he held out. They
were very different from the kind she had been in the habit of wearing,
and when he carelessly took out the fur cap she broke into a little cry
of delight. Hawtrey watched her with a curious expression. He was not
quite sure that he had meant Sally to have the things when he had
purchased them, but he was quite contented now. The one gift he had
diffidently offered Agatha since her arrival in Canada had been almost
coldly laid aside.

In a few minutes Sally laid out supper, and as she waited upon him
daintily or filled his cup Hawtrey thrust the misgivings he had felt
further behind him. Sally, he thought with a feeling of satisfaction,
could certainly cook. When the meal was finished he sat talking about
nothing in particular for almost an hour, and then it occurred to him
that Sally's mother would be back before very long. She was a person he
had no great liking for and he was anxious to go.

"Well," he said, "I must be getting home. Won't you let me see you with
that cap on?"

Sally, who betrayed no diffidence, put on the cap, and stood before a
dingy mirror with both hands raised while she pressed it down upon her
gleaming hair. She flashed a smiling glance at him. It was quite
sufficient, and as she turned again Hawtrey slipped forward as softly as
he could. She swung around, however, with a flush in her face and a
forceful restraining gesture.

"Don't spoil it all, Gregory," she said sharply.

Hawtrey, who saw that she meant it--which was a cause of some
astonishment to him--dropped his arms that were held out to embrace her.

"Oh," he said, "if you look at it in that way I'm sorry. Good-night,
Sally!"

She let him go, but she smiled when he drove away; and half an hour
later she showed the cap and mittens to her mother with significant
candor. Mrs. Creighton, who was a severely practical person, nodded.

"Well," she said, "he only wants a little managing if he bought you
these, and nobody could say you ran after him."

CHAPTER XX

THE FIRST STAKE

A fo