?" inquired Jane. "Get on the train and go on up."

"Do you suppose it would be all right?" replied Molly.

"Why, of course, girl! Aren't you a married woman of lawful age? I
would if I wanted to."

There was a pause, and Molly replied thoughtfully, "I have half a
notion to--really!"

But as she walked home, she decided not to do it. People from the
Ridge might be there, and they wouldn't understand, and her
finger-tips chilled at the memory of Adrian Brownwell's jealous eyes.
So as she ate supper, she went over the dresses she had that were
available. And at bedtime she gave the whole plan up and went upstairs
humming "Marguerite" as happily as the thrush that sang in the lilacs
that morning. As she undressed the note fell to the floor. When she
picked it up, the flash of passion came tearing through her heart, and
the "no" crashed in her ears again, and all the day's struggle was for
nothing. So she went to bed, resolved not to go. But she stared
through the window into the night, and of a sudden a resolve came to
her to go, and have one fair day with Hendricks--to talk it all out
forever, and then to come home, and she rose from her bed and tiptoed
through the house packing a valise. She left a note in the kitchen for
the servant, saying that she would be back for dinner the next
evening, and when she struck a match in the front hall to see what
time it was, she found that it was only one o'clock. For an hour she
sat in the chill September air on the veranda, thinking it all
over--what she would say; how they would meet and part; and over and
over again she told herself that she was doing the sensible thing. As
the clock struck two she picked up her valise--it was heavier than
she thought, and it occurred to her that she had put in many
unnecessary things, and that she had time to lighten it. But she
stopped a moment only, and then walked to the gate and down a side
street to the station. It was 2.20 when she arrived, and the train was
marked on the blackboard by the ticket window on time. She kept
telling herself that it was best to have it out; that she would come
right back; but she remembered her heavy valise, and again the warning
"no" roared through her soul. She walked up and down the long
platform, and felt the presence of Bob Hendricks strong and
compelling; she knew he had been there that very day, and wondered
where he sat. Then she thought perhaps she would do better not to go.
She looked into the me