ou to take me to drive."

"To drive!" Henley repeated, as much surprised as if she had asked him
for a trip to Europe, and he heard old Wrinkle laugh out impulsively and
saw him dig his heel into the earth, as, with lowered head, he sought
to hide a broad and too-knowing smile which had captured his facile
mouth. "To drive?"

"Yes, Alfred, it has been a long time since I've seen anything of the
country hereabouts. Why, I've almost forgot how it looks, and this is
the best time of the year. It would do us both good to take a little
jaunt every day in the cool of the evening. We used to go out that way
just before we was married, and for a while afterward, and I want to do
it again. We've got wrong, somehow. We are not living like we ought to.
I say it here before Pa because I mean it, and know he will see it as I
do. Don't you think he ought to take me, Pa?"

"Well, I don't know as I'd sanction your ridin' 'round _late in the
evenin_'." Wrinkle now showed no hint of even hidden merriment. "You
mought git delayed beyond the usual time and supper would hang fire.
Havin' fun an' startin' in to do courtin' over agin is all right an'
proper if a body _feels_ thataway, but doin' it on a starvation basis
ain't good for the health, if it is for the senti_ments_."

"Oh, I'll see that you don't suffer, you old, greedy thing," Mrs. Henley
said, playfully, and caught her husband's arm. "I want you to hitch up,
and get a new lap-robe, and take me to-day--this very evening."

"To-day? Good gracious, what's got into you, Hettie?" Henley stammered,
glancing here and there in sheer helplessness. "I couldn't get off from
business. I've got my hands full of deals of one kind and another.
Driving around is all right for--for young couples that are sparking,
and even for fresh-married ones, but there comes a time when all
sensible folks ought to settle down to the--the enjoyment of home life."

"I see--you have changed." Mrs. Henley now drew herself up austerely and
glared at him coldly. "You think I'm well enough as a drudge about a
dirty old farm-house, but not fit company for riding and driving like
any woman as young as I am is entitled to. You never thought that sort
of a thing was too frivolous before we married, but now you sneer at it.
Well, you just wait till I give you a chance to take me anywhere again.
I lowered my pride to ask it this time, but I won't remind you again.
No, sir."

With a cloud of fury on her face she whir