olet walked to the nearest mirror and
looked at herself with her forefinger in the dimple of her chin.

"It is very odd," she said. She did not mean the dimple.

* * * * *

Spencer had told her he was not coming back. She did not believe this,
but she did not expect him for a few days. Consequently, when he
appeared the very next evening she was surprised. Madison, to whom she
was talking when Spencer entered, does not know to this day what she
had started to say to him, for she never finished her sentence.

"I wonder if it is the Loon Lake affair again?" she thought nervously.

Mrs. Hill came up at this point and whisked Madison off for a waltz.
Spencer, seeing his chance, came straight across the room to her.
Sergeant Robinson, who was watching them as usual, is willing to make
affidavit that Miss Thayer changed colour.

After his greeting Spencer said nothing. He sat beside her, and they
watched Mrs. Hill and Madison dancing. Violet wondered why she did not
feel bored. When she saw Madison coming back to her she was conscious
of an unreasonable anger with him. She got up abruptly.

"Let us go out on the verandah," she said imperiously. "It is
absolutely stifling in here."

They went out. It was very cool and dusky. The lights of the town
twinkled out below them, and the prairie bluffs behind them were dark
and sibilant.

"I am going to drive over to Loon Lake tomorrow afternoon to look into
affairs there," said Spencer. "Will you go with me?"

Violet reflected a moment. "You didn't ask me as if you really wanted
me to go," she said.

Spencer put his hand over the white fingers that rested on the
railing. He bent forward until his breath stirred the tendrils of hair
on her forehead.

"Yes, I do," he said distinctly. "I want you to go with me to Loon
Lake tomorrow more than I ever wanted any thing in my life before."

Later on, when everybody had gone, Violet had her bad quarter of an
hour with Mrs. Hill. That lady felt herself aggrieved.

"I think you treated poor Ned very badly tonight, Vi. He felt really
blue over it. And it was awfully bad form to go out with Spencer as
you did and stay there so long. And you oughtn't to flirt with him--he
doesn't understand the game."

"I'm not going to flirt with him," said Miss Thayer calmly.

"Oh, I suppose it's just your way. Only don't turn the poor fellow's
head. By the way, Ned is coming up with his camera tomorrow afternoon