sound. "For a minute
I'd pull you down here and stomp the life out of you!"

"Why, Alf! Alf! have you plumb lost your senses?" Long gasped. "Why,
why, good Lord, man! Why, Alf--"

"Don't Alf me!" Henley cried. "Get out of my sight or me 'n you'll mix
right here! I didn't introduce you to that gentle girl to have you pull
her around like a housemaid and force your foul lips to hers. I
introduced you as a _man_, not a bar-room roustabout. No wonder she
hain't took to you--no wonder she don't want to tie herself down for
life to you!"

Henley had sprung into his buggy and taken up the whip and reins. "Stand
out of the way!" he cried. "You've imposed on my friendship, and I don't
want you ever to mention this matter to me again. I'm heartily ashamed
of my part in it, and I don't want to be reminded of it."

Long tried to stop him, but, still white and furious, Henley lashed his
horse, and the animal bore him out of the yard and into the street. "I
ought to have given him one in the jaw!" Henley fumed. "I'll be sorry I
didn't the longer I think about it--the low-lived, dirty brute!"

CHAPTER XXVIII

All the next day as Henley performed his duties at the store the hot
sense of Long's stupid conduct brooded over him. One moment he was fired
with fury over the man's sheer vanity, the next he was bitterly accusing
himself for having been the primary cause of putting Dixie in a
disagreeable position. What would she think of him, he asked himself
over and over, for introducing such a despicable creature to her
hospitality and good graces?

It was near sunset when he saw her pass the store, going toward the
square. He went to the porch in front, unnoticed by the busy Cahews and
the drowsy Pomp, and saw her, much to his surprise, enter the
court-house yard, a place seldom visited by ladies. She was going up the
walk to the arching stone entrance when she met the ordinary of the
county, and Henley saw her pause and speak to him. The elderly,
gray-haired gentleman stood for several minutes in a listening attitude,
his hand cupped behind his ear, for he was slightly deaf. Presently
Henley saw the two turn toward the building and enter it side by side.

"I wonder what on earth the little trick's going there for at this time
of year," Henley mused. "It ain't tax-paying time."

The sun was down when she came out. He saw her coming and got his hat,
timing himself so that he would meet her, as if by accident, and walk
hom