"Oh!" said Alice, laughing. "You thought I was very ungenerous to leave
you out of the question entirely."

"Honestly I did think so," remarked Quincy.

"Well, now," said Alice, "I did it from the most generous of motives. I
thought you knew about the surprise party as well as I did. I knew
'Zekiel would go with me and I thought that perhaps you had some other
young lady in view for your companion."

"What?" asked Quincy. "Whom could I have had in view?"

"Shall I tell you whom I think?" asked Alice.

"I wish you would," Quincy replied.

"Well," said Alice, "I thought it might be Lindy Putnam."

Quincy bit his lip and gave the reins a savage jerk, as he turned up the
short road that led to the Pettengill house. "What could make you think
that, Miss Pettengill?"

"Well, I have only one reason to give," Alice replied, "for that
opinion, but the fact is, when we made our call on Mrs. Putnam she
pounded on the floor three times with her crutch before you came
upstairs. Am I justified, Mr. Sawyer?"

"I'm afraid you are," said Quincy. "I should have thought so myself if I
had been in your place."

But when he reached his room he threw his letters on the table, his coat
and hat on the bed, and thrusting his hands into his pockets, he walked
rapidly up and down the room, saying to himself in a savage whisper,
"Confound that Putnam girl; she is a hoodoo."

Quincy was philosophical, and his excited feelings soon quieted down. It
would come out all right in the end. Alice would find that he had not
intended to take Miss Putnam to the surprise party. He could not betray
Lindy's confidence just at that time, even to justify himself. He must
wait until Mrs. Putnam died. It might be years from now before the time
came to destroy that letter, and he could not, until then, disclose to
Alice the secret that Lindy had confided to him. Yes, it would come out
all right in the end, for it might be if Alice thought he was in love
with Lindy that she would give more thought to him. He had read
somewhere that oftentimes the best way to awaken a dormant love was to
appear to fall in love with some one else.

Somewhat reconciled to the situation by his thoughts, he sat down to
read his letters. The first one that he took up was from the
confectioner. It informed him that his order would receive prompt
attention, and the writer thanked him for past favors and solicited a
continuance of the same. The second was from Ernst. It was shor