cavalry to be herded home by the two negro boys. It would have been
pleasant, she thought, to have appeared at Storm in an automobile, with
not only the author in tow, but the interesting stranger as well, to the
confounding of Jemima. Her voice came back through the darkness rather
wistfully.

"Good-by. Wasn't it lucky you happened along in time?"

"It was indeed!" they replied with one voice.

"I hope," she called sweetly, "that you will think it necessary to come
and inquire about my health. That would be only polite, don't you
think?"

They agreed with her.

"There!" she said to Philip. "Didn't I do that nicely? Jemmy herself
couldn't have been more young lady-like. Do tell me how you happened to
know Mr. Farwell, and why you haven't introduced him to us? Didn't you
know we were wild to see him?"

Benoix did not answer. His silence gave an effect of displeasure.

She put her horse closer to his, and laid a coaxing hand on his arm.
"Why, Reverend Flip, I believe you are cross with me! What about--not
because I came to Henderson's rescue, surely? I couldn't let those men
get poor Mag's father! She said they would have killed him."

Philip murmured, "Not such a bad thing if they did."

"Philip! What did you say?"

"I said," he replied mendaciously, "that you have behaved foolishly and
riskily, and with no dignity whatever. 'Young lady-like' indeed! Riding
about the country bareback, with your hair down, and your skirts above
your knees! What do you suppose those strange men thought of that?"

"I think they liked it," she said candidly. "They looked as if they did.
You see neither of them is my spiritual pastor and master, so they don't
have to be shocked by me." She gave him a demure, sidelong glance.

"I am not shocked either, you know that. Only--" said Philip.

"Only you wish I were more like Jemmy," she pouted. "Stiff, and proper,
and prim--"

"I don't want you to be like any one but yourself," he said warmly, and
paused. Suddenly he realized the change that was coming over this little
playmate of his, half child and half woman as she was. The woman was
beginning to predominate. He remembered her with Mag's baby, her almost
passionate tenderness, her precocious knowledge of the child's needs. He
remembered her manner with the two men they had just left, coquettish,
innocently provocative. It had startled him. Evidently, Jacqueline was
becoming aware of certain powers in herself which she was not ave