didn't know about it."

"Is that why you asked me if I was happy? I couldn't make out what was
the matter with you."

"Well, I guess I thought if you still wanted to quit, Ed's coming would
be kind of useful."

Nora sat down in one of the chairs and gave him a long level look.

"What makes you think that I want to?" she said quietly.

"You ain't been so very talkative these last months, but I guess it
wasn't so hard to see sometimes that you'd have given pretty near
anything in the world to quit."

"I've no intention of going back to Eddie's farm, if that's what you
mean."

To this he made no reply. Still with the same grave air, he went over to
the door and started out again, pausing a moment after he had crossed
the threshold.

"If Ed comes before I get back, tell him I won't be long. I guess you
won't be sorry to do a bit of yarning with him all by yourself."

"You are not going away with the idea that I'm going to say beastly
things to him about you, are you?"

"No, I guess not. That ain't your sort. Perhaps we don't know the best
of one another yet, but I reckon we know the worst by this time."

"Frank!" she said sharply. "There's something the matter. What is it?"

"Why, no; there's nothing. Why?"

"You've not been yourself the last few days."

"I guess that's only your imagination. Well, I'd better be getting
along. Sid and the other fellow'll be waiting for me."

Without another look in her direction, he was gone, closing the door
after him.

Nora remained quite still for several minutes, biting her lips and
frowning in deep thought. It was all very well to say that there was
nothing the matter, but there was. Did he think she could live with him
day after day all these months and not notice his change of mood, even
if she could not translate it? He had still a great deal to learn about
women!

On the way over to the shelf to get her work, she paused a moment beside
her flowers to cheer herself once more with their brightness. Sitting
down by the table, she began to darn one of her husband's thick woolen
socks. An instant later she was startled by a loud knock on the door.

With a little cry of pleasure she flung it open, to find Eddie standing
outside. She gave a cry of delight. Somehow, the interval since she had
seen him last, significant as it was in bringing to her the greatest
change her life had known, seemed for the second longer than all the
years she had spent in England without