oing home, and that is all that there is about it," the girl
announced in desperation.

John still hung back.

When he did not reply and it became necessary for her to go into the
details she had been trying to avoid, it was done reluctantly and with as
little emphasis put upon the possibility of physical chastisement as could
be done and convince him at all. To Elizabeth's surprise John did not take
much notice of that element. It did not occur to her at that time that it
was a strange thing that her lover should fail to be stirred by the
probability of her receiving a blow. Elizabeth had never had consideration
shown her by any one but Susan Hornby and had not yet learned to expect
it. John struck the horses with the dangling lines he held and drove on
toward the waiting trunk. She watched him as he rode by her side moodily
thinking of the gossip threatened, and while it was not the mood she
wished him to entertain, it did not occur to her that it was anything but
a natural one. They rode without speaking until the house was reached.

"This'll have to be explained to mother," he remarked discontentedly as he
shoved the unoffending trunk into the back of the wagon. Elizabeth made no
reply. She had been thinking of that very thing.

VIII

CYCLONES

Susan Hornby asked no questions when Elizabeth and John presented
themselves at her door. Their embarrassed faces warned her. She gathered
Elizabeth into her arms for a brief hug, and then pushed her toward the
inside of the house, remaining behind to show John where to put the trunk.
When it had been set beside the kitchen door she dismissed him by saying:

"I won't ask you to stay for a bite of dinner, since your mother is alone,
Mr. Hunter."

"Well--er--that is--mother expected Elizabeth over there," John stammered,
looking toward the front room.

"Tell your mother Elizabeth will stay right here till she has rested up
from that headache," the woman replied with the tone of having settled the
matter.

Elizabeth, in the other room, noted that he did not argue about it and
heard him drive away with mixed feelings. When at last Aunt Susan's
questions were answered the girl in turn became questioner.

"Will she think--John's mother--that we're coarse and common?" she asked
when she had told as much as she could bring herself to tell of the
morning's altercation.

The look on the older woman's face was not a hopeful one, and the girl got
up restlessly from