meant to forego his evening smoke. Jerry sat forward a little in his
chair and let his long hands, loosely clasped, hang between his knees.
He gazed straight out through the dark window as if he could see the
lovely night pulsating there, and his bright gray eyes seemed to hold
gleams of an extreme anticipation. Then he remembered the world where he
found himself, this clean exquisite room with its homely furnishings,
where he had become as familiar as if it were a secondary shell that
fitted him so completely he hardly noticed it, and turned to her with an
effect of winking his eyes open after a dream.

"Marietta," said he, "who do you suppose has come?"

She shook her head in an attentive interest.

He kept his gaze on her as if it were all incredible.

"Ruth Bellair," he said solemnly.

Now she did start, and her lips parted in the surprise of it.

"Not here?" she insisted. "You don't mean she's come here?"

He shook his head.

"No. She's at Poplar Bridge. The paper said so to-night."

"What's she there for?"

"She's come to board. The paper said so. 'The well-known poetess, Ruth
Bellair, has arrived to spend the summer at the commodious boarding
establishment of L. H. Moody.'"

He looked at her in a pale triumph, and she stared back at him with all
the emotion he could have wished.

"I can't hardly believe it," she said faintly.

"That's it," he nodded at her. "Nobody could believe it. Why, Marietta,
do you suppose there's been a night I've sat here that I haven't either
read some of her pieces to you, or told you something I'd seen about her
in the papers?"

"No," said Marietta, rather wearily, yet with a careful interest, "you
haven't talked about anything else scarcely."

He was looking at her out of the same solemn assurance that it had been
commendable in him to preserve that romantic loyalty.

"She begun to write about the time I did," he said, tasting the flavor
of reminiscence. "I used to see her name in the papers when I never so
much as thought I should write a line myself. She's been a great
influence in my life, Marietta."

"Yes, course she has," Marietta responded, rising to the height of his
emotion. "I guess she's influenced a good many folks."

"Well, I've got my chance. She's here within ten miles of us, and come
what may, I'm bound to see her."

Marietta started.

"See her?" she repeated. "How under the sun you going to do that? You
don't know her, nor any of her folks. See