ces?"

She nodded.

"You don't understand. She doesn't want to marry me."

"You asked her?"

"Yes."

"And then--and then you came to me?"

"Yes, little girl. She sent me to you. She--why, it was she that made
me see straight!"

Her face was still concealed.

"I--I wish you'd go away," she sobbed.

"You don't understand!" he answered fiercely. "I'm not going away. I
love you, and I've come to get you. I won't go away until you come
with me."

She rose to her feet, her back toward him.

"Go away!" she cried.

Then she ran into the house, leaving him standing there dazed.

CHAPTER XXX

DON EXPLAINS

It seemed that, in spite of her business training and the unsentimental
outlook on life upon which she had rather prided herself, Sally
Winthrop did not differ greatly from other women. Shut up in her
room, a deep sense of humiliation overwhelmed her. He had asked this
other girl to marry him, and when she refused he had come to her! He
thought as lightly of her as that--a mere second choice when the first
was made impossible. He had no justification for that. This other had
sent him to her--doubtless with a smile of scorn upon her pretty lips.

But what was she crying about and making her nose all red? She should
have answered him with another smile and sent him back again. Then he
would have understood how little she cared--would have understood that
she did not care enough even to feel the sting of such an insult as
this. For the two days she had been here awaiting the announcement of
his marriage she had said over and over again that she did not
care--said it the first thing upon waking and the last thing upon
retiring. Even when she woke up in the night, as she did many times,
she said it to herself. It had been a great comfort to her, for it was
a full and complete answer to any wayward thoughts that took her
unaware.

She did not care about him, so what was she sniveling about and making
her nose all red? She dabbed her handkerchief into her eyes and sought
her powder-box. If he had only kept away from her everything would
have been all right. Within the next ten or eleven days she would have
readjusted herself and been ready to take up her work again, with
another lesson learned. She would have gone back to her room wiser and
with still more confidence in herself. And now he was downstairs,
waiting for her. There was no way she could escape him. She must do
all those things without the h