ging in on you!"

"I know what you are thinking. The time I suggested, way back there in
Dakota, that you were sticking too close. You've never got over it. I've
tried to make up for it, but---- I really don't blame you. I was horrid.
I deserve being beaten. But you do keep on punishing ra----"

"Punishing? Lord, I didn't mean to! No! Honest! It was nothing. You were
right. Looked as though I was inviting myself---- But, oh, pleassssse,
Miss Boltwood, don't ever think for a sec. that I meant to be a
grouch----"

"Then do tell me---- Who is this Milton Daggett that you know so much
better than I ever can?"

"Well," Milt crossed his knees, caught his chin in his hand, "I don't
know as I really do know him so well. I thought I did. I was onto his
evil ways. He was the son of the pioneer doctor, Maine folks."

"Really? My mother came from Maine."

Milt did not try to find out that they were cousins. He went on, "This
kid, Milt, went to high school in St. Cloud--town twenty times as big
as Schoenstrom--but he drifted back because his dad was old and needed
him, after his mother's death----"

"You have no brothers or sisters?"

"No. Nobody. 'Cept Lady Vere de Vere--which animal she is going to get
cuffed if she chews up any more of my overcoat out in my tent
tonight!... Well, this kid worked 'round, machinery mostly, and got
interested in cars, and started a garage---- Wee, that was an awful
shop, first one I had! In Rauskukle's barn. Six wrenches and a
screwdriver and a one-lung pump! And I didn't know a roller-bearing from
three-point suspension! But---- Well, anyway, he worked along, and built
a regular garage, and paid off practically all the mortgage on it----"

"I remember stopping at a garage in Schoenstrom, I'm almost sure it was,
for something. I seem to remember it was a good place. Do you own it?
Really?"

"Ye-es, what there is of it."

"But there's a great deal of it. It's efficient. You've done your job.
That's more than most high-born aides-de-camp could say."

"Honestly? Well--I don't know----"

"Who did you play with in Schoenstrom? Oh, I _wish_ I'd noticed that
town. But I couldn't tell then that---- What, uh, which girl did you
fall in love with?"

"None! Honest! None! Not one! Never fell in love----"

"You're unfortunate. I have, lots of times. I remember quite enjoying
being kissed once, at a dance."

When he answered, his voice was strange: "I suppose you're engaged to
somebody."

"