eps up her course toward him, he will hate me more than
ever. He will not rest till he gets me out of the store. Well, let him go
ahead. I am not an old man yet, and the world is broad and big."

He was about to sit down to the evening meal, when a servant of Mr.
Warmore arrived with a note, requesting the pleasure of Mr. Gordon's
company to dinner that evening. It was not a simple formal invitation,
but was so urgent that the young man could not refuse. He returned word
through the servant that he accepted with pleasure the invitation and
would be soon there.

Can the youth be censured, if, with a fluttering heart, he took extra
pains with his personal appearance before leaving the good farmer's home
that evening? When at last he stepped forth, in full dress, swinging his
light cane, you would have had to hunt a long way to find a handsomer
fellow than he.

And yet, with all his delightful anticipation, was mingled a feeling of
dread. He disliked meeting Catherwood, for between them a great gulf
yawned and something unpleasant was certain to occur. Jennie had witnessed
his insulting offer of a reward to him for what he had done, and must have
appreciated the style in which it was repulsed. She would show her
feelings most decisively before the evening was over.

Besides that, he dreaded hearing the family renew their expressions of
thankfulness. Tom had unquestionably performed a brave act, but no more so
than hundreds of others that were continually being done every day--some
of them entitled to far more credit than was his.

But the fact that he was about to spend an evening in the company of Miss
Jennie herself, outweighed all these slight objections. Conscious, too,
of her feeling toward him, he could not help viewing the hours just before
him with a delightful flutter of anticipation.

The first pleasant disappointment which came to Tom, after reaching the
fine residence and receiving the cordial welcome of the family, was the
discovery that G. Field Catherwood was not present, and would not form one
of the little party. That lifted a load of apprehension from his
shoulders.

Inasmuch as it had to come, Tom took the thanks of the parents like a
hero. He listened with a respectful smile, blushed under the compliments,
and blushed still more when Jennie with a straightforward, earnest look
said,--

"Mr. Gordon may say it was not much, but it saved my life, and I shall
_never_, NEVER forget it. If Mr. Cather