was fun sharing fun with him; and something
in his way of receiving it suggested that he had been in need of sharing
some one's fun. He had a way of looking at her when she laughed that had
vague suggestion of something not far from gratitude.

But the fun light, and that other light which seemed wanting to thank
her for something, went from his eyes, leaving a glimmer of something
deeper as he asked: "But you've never asked for her story? You've
demanded nothing?"

"Why no," said Katie; "only that I should be proud if she ever felt I
could help."

He turned his face a little away. One looking into it then would not have
given much for his stock of hate.

Worth had approached. "Ain't you getting awful hungry, Aunt Kate?"

It recalled her, and to embarrassment. "We must go at once," she
said, confused.

"Did you find out all you wanted to know from him, Aunt Kate?" he asked,
getting in the boat.

She transcended her embarrassment. "No, Worth. Only that there is a very
great deal I would like to know."

He was standing ready to push her boat away. She did not give the word.
As she looked at him she had a fancy that she was leaving him in a lonely
place--she who was going back to what he called the sunny paths. And not
only did she feel that he was lonely, but she felt curiously lonely
herself, sitting there waiting to tell him to push her away. She wanted
to say, "Come and see me," but she was too bound by the things to which
she was returning to put it in the language of those things. And so she
said, and the new shyness brought its own sweetness:

"You tell me to come to you if I need a guide. Thank you for that. I
shall remember. And perhaps sunshine is a thing that soaks in and can be
stored up, and given out again. If it ever seems I can be of any use--in
any way--will you come where you know you can find me?"

Her eyes fell before the things which had leaped to his.

CHAPTER XIX

Two hours later she found herself alone on the porch with Captain
Prescott.

A good deal had happened in the meantime.

Mrs. Prescott had arrived during Katie's absence, a stop-over of two
weeks having been shortened to two hours because of the illness of her
friend. Her room at her son's quarters being uninhabitable because of
fresh paint, Wayne had insisted she come to them, and she was even then
resting up in Ann's room, or rather the room which had been put at her
disposal, a bed having been arranged for Ann in