sephine.

"No, I will not!" he replied, and pulled her about a trifle so that she
was compelled to face him. "I don't choose to have anybody, least of
all you, think wrongly of me."

"Mr. Turner, I do not choose to be detained against my will," declared
Miss Josephine.

"Mr. Turner," boomed a deep-timbered voice right behind them, "the lady
has requested you to let her go. I should advise you to do so."

Mr. Turner was attempting to frame up a reasonable answer to this
demand when Miss Josephine prevented him from doing so.

"Mr. Princeman," said she to the interrupting gallant, "I thank you for
your interference on my behalf, but I am quite capable of protecting
myself," and leaving the two stunned gentlemen together, she once more
took her handkerchief from her sleeve and walked swiftly up to the
porch, brushing the handkerchief lightly over her face again.

"Well, I'll be damned!" said Princeman, looking after her in more or
less bewilderment.

"So will I," said Sam. "Have you a cigarette about you?"

Princeman gave him one and they took a light from the same match, then,
neither one of them caring to discuss any subject whatever at that
particular moment, they separated, and Sam hunted a lonely corner. He
wanted to be alone and gloom. Confound bowling, anyhow! It was a dull
and uninteresting game. He cared less for it as time went on, he
found; less to-night than ever. He crept away into the dim and
deserted parlor and sat down at the piano, the only friend in which he
cared to confide just then. He played, with a queer lingering touch
which had something of hesitation in it, and which reduced all music to
a succession of soft chords, _The Maid of Dundee_ and _Annie Laurie_,
_The Banks of Banna_ and _The Last Rose of Summer_, then one of the
simpler nocturnes of Chopin, and, following these, a quaint, slow
melody which was like all of the others and yet like none.

"Bravo!" exclaimed a gentle voice in the doorway, and he turned,
startled, to see Miss Stevens standing there. She did not explain why
she had relented, but came directly into the room and stood at the end
of the piano. He reached up and shook hands with her quite naturally,
and just as naturally and simply she let her hand lie in his for an
instant. How soft and warm her palm was, and how grateful the touch of
it!

"What a pleasant surprise!" she said. "I didn't know you played."

"I don't," he confessed, smiling. "If you had s