n the white costume in which her girlish vanity seemed to revel, how
could she do anything unsafe during the short time of his absence,
especially with Pete to guard her? The dwarf had had it made perfectly
clear to him that his life depended on Geraldine's presence.

However, it was Carder's policy never to take a very small chance of a
very big misfortune. 'Safe bind, safe find,' was a favorite saying of
his.

"As soon as you feel thoroughly rested, we must take a trip to town," he
said, and he advanced a bony, ill-kept hand toward hers as if he would
seize it. "I think Ma works too hard," he added diplomatically as
Geraldine slid her hand off the table. "We must go and see if we can get
the right kind of help. You'll know how to pick it out. Then what do
you say to havin' an architect come out and look over the old shack here
and see what he thinks he can do with it, regardless of expense?"

Geraldine felt that unnerving nausea again steal around her heart.

"It isn't too late for us to take a little flyer in to-day," he added
eagerly, and the suggestion made the meadow and its cows look like a
glimpse of paradise. Supposing _he_ should come and she be gone! This
was the great third day. "I--really--I"--stammered Geraldine--"I feel a
little shaky yet."

"Oh, all right," Rufus laughed leniently. "Be it ever so humble and all
that you know. _Home_ for you, eh, Gerrie?"

She longed to rise and strike his ugly smile at the sound of her
father's pet name, and she trembled from head to foot. "A trusty," she
said to herself commandingly. "A trusty."

She did not hear another word that was said during dinner, and when she
was free she flew up to her room and put on the poor little
grass-stained dress and the rich crepe of her mother's heirloom.

"O God, send him!" she prayed, as her fingers worked on the fastenings.
"O God, let him come"--then with tardy, desperate recollection, she
added--"and O God, save his life!"

It seemed difficult for Rufus Carder to separate himself from her that
day. When she emerged from the house, she found him watching for her and
she reminded herself again that if she angered him he might prevent her
from doing as she pleased. It seemed to her now so intensely vital that
she should get to the meadow that she felt panic lest something happen
to prevent it.

"You don't want to go down there again to-day," said Rufus coaxingly.
"Let's take a walk up to the pond."

"Is there a pond?" as