-haired daughter thrust upon him. It was rather hard, and
Tom's face was very gloomy and dark for the remainder of the evening,
while they sat upon the piazza and laughed, and talked, and said the
little nothings so pleasant to the young and so meaningless to the old
who have forgotten their youth.

Jerrie was the first to speak of going. She had hoped that Harold might
possibly come for her, but as the time passed on, and he did not appear,
she knew he was not coming, and at last arose to say good-night to Nina,
while Dick hastened forward and announced his intention to accompany
her.

'No, Dick, no; please don't,' she said. 'I am not a bit afraid, and I
would rather you did not go.'

But Dick was persistent.

'You know you accepted my services this morning,' he said, and his face,
as he went down the steps with Jerrie on his arm, wore a very different
expression from that of poor Tom, who, with Ann Eliza coming about to
his elbow, stalked moodily along the road, scarcely hearing and not
always replying to the commonplace remarks of his companion, who had
never been so happy in her life, because never before had she been out
alone in the evening with Tom Tracy as her escort.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

OUT IN THE STORM.

For half an hour or more before the young people left the house a dark
mass of clouds had been rolling up from the west, and by the time that
they were out of the grounds and on the highway, the moonlight was
wholly obscured and the sky was overcast as with a pall, while frequent
groans of thunder and flashes of lightning in the distance told of the
fast coming storm.

'Oh, I am so afraid of thunder! Aren't you?' Ann Eliza cried, in terror,
as she clung closer to Tom, who, beside her, seemed a very giant, and
who did not reply until there came a gleam of lightning which showed him
the white face and the loose hair blowing out from under his companion's
hat.

There was a little shriek of fear and a smothered cry. 'Oh, Tom, aren't
you a bit afraid?'

And then the giant answered the trembling little girl whom he would like
to have shaken off, she clung so closely to him 'Thunder and lightning,
no!' I'm not afraid of anything except getting wet; and if you are,
you'd better run before the whole thing is upon us; the sky is blacker
than midnight now. I never saw a storm come on so fast. Can you run?'

'Yes--some,' Ann Eliza gasped out; 'only my boots are so tight and new,
and the heels are so hi