r. Sewall's activities had anything to do with her? It was rather
audacious of her to don a smart lavender linen suit one afternoon and
stroll out toward the Country Club. Her little dog Dandy might just as
well have exercised in the opposite direction, and his mistress avoided
certain dangerous possibilities. But fate was on her side. She didn't
think so at first when, in the course of his constitutional, Dandy
suddenly bristled and growled at a terrier twice his weight and size,
and then with a pull and a dash fell to in a mighty encounter, rolling
over and over in the dirt and dust. Afterward, with the yelping terrier
disappearing down the road, Dandy held up a bleeding paw to his
mistress. She didn't have the heart to scold the triumphant little
warrior. Besides he was sadly injured. She tied her handkerchief about
the paw, gathered the dog up in her arms, turned her back on the Country
Club a quarter of a mile further on, and started home. It was just then
that a gray, low, deep-purring automobile appeared out of a cloud of
dust in the distance. As it approached it slowed down and came to a full
stop three feet in front of her. She looked up. The occupant of the car
was smiling broadly.

"Well!" he ejaculated. "At last! Where did you drop from?"

"How do you do," she replied loftily.

"Where did you drop from?" he repeated. "I've been hanging around for a
week, looking for you."

"For _me_?" She was surprised. "Why, what for?"

"Say," he broke out. "That was a mean trick you played. I was mad clean
through at first. What did you run off that way for? What was the game?"

"Previous engagement," she replied primly.

"Previous engagement! Well, you haven't any previous engagement now,
have you? Because, if you have, get in, and I'll waft you to it."

"Oh, I wouldn't think of it!" she said. He opened the door to the car
and sprang out beside her.

"Come, get in," he urged. "I'll take you anywhere you're going. I'd be
delighted."

"Why," she exclaimed, "we haven't been introduced. How do I know who
you are?" She was a well brought-up young person, you see.

"I'll tell you who I am fast enough. Glad to. Get in, and we will run up
to the Club and get introduced, if that's what you want."

"Oh, it isn't!" she assured him. "I just prefer to walk--that's all.
Thank you very much."

"Well, walk then. But you don't give me the slip this time, young lady.
Savvy that? Walk, and I'll come along behind on low speed.