OUNTERPANE
AND DID NOT ATTEMPT TO REPLY"]

John's arms closed about her in a relaxed sort of way, and patting her
head half-heartedly, he said again:

"Come on, dear. Mother's out there getting supper alone." He took his own
pocket handkerchief and wiped her tear-stained face and, after kissing
her, pushed her gently but firmly toward the kitchen.

Supper was not a cheerful meal. Elizabeth's voice was thick from crying
and she did not talk at all, while John and his mother could not discuss
the topic uppermost in their minds in her presence. The feeling that there
was a combination of which she was not a part grew upon the young wife,
and a longing for Aunt Susan grew with it.

"I'd like to go over to Uncle Nate's immediately after supper," she said.
"I'll do the dishes while you hitch up."

"Good Lord! I don't want to go over there to-night," was the reply. "I
wish you'd quit calling those people 'Aunt' and 'Uncle'."

Elizabeth's face blazed with colour as he got up and went into the sitting
room. The brutality of the answer was so evident to John's mother that she
followed him.

"You had better take Elizabeth to Mr. Hornby's, John. I don't think you
should speak to her in that way, either," she said in a low tone of
voice.

Elizabeth could not hear Mrs. Hunter's remarks, but John's reply was
audible enough.

"I'm not going over there to-night. I don't feel as if I ever wanted to go
anywhere again."

She also heard Mrs. Hunter's low "Sh!" and felt more than ever an alien.

When the dishes were finished Mrs. Hunter went upstairs. John followed
her.

"I will not be hurt, because I will not see hurt," Elizabeth told herself
as she slipped through the house to her own room. Because her lips
quivered as she said it, she busied herself in taking down her hair to
brush for the night. Her sleeves were tight and hindered, and she took off
her dress and folded it across the back of a chair carefully, and finished
braiding her hair in her petticoat.

John found her with her white arms uplifted as she combed the long
strands. Moved by her girlish beauty and freshness, he went over and put
his arms about her. The girl's mouth was full of hairpins, and she mumbled
something he did not understand. He kept his arms about her insistently,
and rubbed his chin on her smooth shoulder with a little laugh. She
struggled to free herself, but he held her teasingly, and finally
accepting the playful tussle as an apology, thoug