hand, Don came out
upon the street with Miss Winthrop.

"I'm going home now," she announced.

"There you are again!" he exclaimed.

"But I must."

"I suppose you think I ought to go home."

"Certainly."

"Look here--doesn't it seem sort of foolish to prepare two lunches in
two different places. Doesn't it seem rather wasteful?"

Offhand, it did. And yet there was something wrong with that argument
somewhere.

"It may be wasteful, but it's necessary," she replied.

"Now, is it?" he asked. "Why can't we go downtown somewhere and lunch
together?"

"You must go home with your bundles," she said, grasping at the most
obvious fact she could think of at the moment.

"If that's the only difficulty, I can call a messenger," he replied
instantly.

"And lose all you've saved by coming 'way up here? I won't listen to
it."

"Then I'll go home with them and come back."

"It will be too late for lunch then."

"I can take a taxi and--"

"No wonder your salary isn't enough if you do such things!" she
interrupted. "If you had ten thousand a year, you would probably
manage to spend it all."

"I haven't a doubt of it," he answered cheerfully. "On the other hand,
it would get me out of such predicaments as these."

Apparently he was content to stand here in front of the little shop
the rest of the afternoon, debating this and similar points. It was
necessary for her to take matters into her own hands.

"The sensible thing for you to do is to go home and have lunch," she
decided.

"And then?"

"Oh, I can't plan your whole day for you. But you ought to get out in
the sunshine."

"Then I'll meet you in the park at three?"

"I didn't say that."

"Will you come?"

She was upon the point of saying no, when she made the mistake of
meeting his eyes. They were honest, direct, eager. It was so easy to
promise whatever they asked and so hard to be always opposing them.
She answered impulsively:--

"Yes."

But she paid for her impulse, as she generally did, by being sorry as
soon as she was out of sight of him. The first thing she knew, she
would be back where she was a month ago, and that would never
do--never do at all.

CHAPTER XVIII

A DISCOURSE ON SALARIES

Until Miss Winthrop allowed Pendleton to spend with her that afternoon
in the park, the period between the close of business on Saturday and
the opening on Monday had furnished her with a natural protective
barrier. On one side of this stood