s now, we
have had a narrow escape. Did you go up where you could obtain a view
of the fire, Kate?"

"No, I didn't." Kate poured herself out a glass of lemonade. "I was so
worried about Marion I couldn't think of anything else. And when the
man stopped and told me where she was, it was dark and I was afraid to
go off alone. Douglas, I never spent as miserable a night in all my
life. The tremendous risk you and Fred were taking made me fairly wild
with anxiety--and then Marion's performance coming up on top of
that--"

"What was Marion's performance? Did she sit by the creek again until
after dark, refusing to stir?" He smiled tolerantly. "I know how
trying Marion's little peculiarities can be. But you surely wouldn't
take them seriously, Kate."

"Oh, no, I suppose not. But when it comes to getting herself caught on
the other side of the fire, and going up to that lookout station and
staying all night, and nobody up there except the lookout man--"

"No! By George, did she do that?"

"Yes, she did, and I think it's perfectly awful! I don't suppose she
could get back, after the fire got started," she admitted grudgingly,
"but she might have done _something_, don't you think? She could have
gone down the other side, it seems to me. I know I'd have gotten back
somehow. And what hurts me, Douglas, is the way she passed it over, as
though it was nothing! She knew how worried I was, and she didn't
seem to care at all. She made a joke of it."

"Well! By George, I am surprised. But Marion is inclined to be a
trifle self-centered, I have noticed. Probably she doesn't realize
your point of view at all. I am sure she likes you too much to hurt
you deliberately, Kate. And young people nowadays have such different
standards of morals. She may actually feel that it isn't shocking, and
she may be hurt at your apparent lack of confidence in her."

"She couldn't possibly think that." Kate was too loyal at heart to
contemplate that possibility for a moment. "Marion knows better than
that. But it does hurt me to see her so careless of her own dignity
and good name. We're strangers in this community, and people are going
to judge us by appearances. They have nothing else to go by. I care
more for Marion, it seems to me, than she cares for herself. Why,
Douglas, that girl even telephoned down to the Forest Service that she
was up there and going to stay, and wanted them to send word to me.
And they are men in that office--human being