come she would have
none of a substitute. So she sternly told herself that gray day in the
windy park.

Suddenly the rain of Aunt Jamesina's prophecy came with a swish and
rush. Anne put up her umbrella and hurried down the slope. As she turned
out on the harbor road a savage gust of wind tore along it. Instantly
her umbrella turned wrong side out. Anne clutched at it in despair. And
then--there came a voice close to her.

"Pardon me--may I offer you the shelter of my umbrella?"

Anne looked up. Tall and handsome and distinguished-looking--dark,
melancholy, inscrutable eyes--melting, musical, sympathetic voice--yes,
the very hero of her dreams stood before her in the flesh. He could not
have more closely resembled her ideal if he had been made to order.

"Thank you," she said confusedly.

"We'd better hurry over to that little pavillion on the point,"
suggested the unknown. "We can wait there until this shower is over. It
is not likely to rain so heavily very long."

The words were very commonplace, but oh, the tone! And the smile which
accompanied them! Anne felt her heart beating strangely.

Together they scurried to the pavilion and sat breathlessly down under
its friendly roof. Anne laughingly held up her false umbrella.

"It is when my umbrella turns inside out that I am convinced of the
total depravity of inanimate things," she said gaily.

The raindrops sparkled on her shining hair; its loosened rings curled
around her neck and forehead. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes big and
starry. Her companion looked down at her admiringly. She felt herself
blushing under his gaze. Who could he be? Why, there was a bit of the
Redmond white and scarlet pinned to his coat lapel. Yet she had thought
she knew, by sight at least, all the Redmond students except the
Freshmen. And this courtly youth surely was no Freshman.

"We are schoolmates, I see," he said, smiling at Anne's colors. "That
ought to be sufficient introduction. My name is Royal Gardner. And you
are the Miss Shirley who read the Tennyson paper at the Philomathic the
other evening, aren't you?"

"Yes; but I cannot place you at all," said Anne, frankly. "Please, where
DO you belong?"

"I feel as if I didn't belong anywhere yet. I put in my Freshman and
Sophomore years at Redmond two years ago. I've been in Europe ever
since. Now I've come back to finish my Arts course."

"This is my Junior year, too," said Anne.

"So we are classmates as well as c