ide being drenched and rendered vague by a heavy
downpour; but it was sheer heat that was descending, with never an
atom of moisture in it.

The shadows beneath the trees were absolutely black, impenetrable; a
dark cave under each ring of leaves. Then toward nightfall this shadow
grew lighter and lighter, until it was a transparent grayness into
which one could see quite clearly. Thus a girl and a man sitting under
a hedgerow elm five or six hundred yards away were distinct objects,
although perhaps themselves unaware that they had gradually lost their
shelter and become conspicuous.

Dale, crossing his fields and staring at these two figures, for a
moment fancied that one of them was Norah. Yet that would have been an
impossibility, because he had just left her behind him at the house;
and she could not have swum round in a great half-circle, through the
drowsy air, to confront him at a distant point where he did not expect
to see her. But the heat made one stupid and slow-witted. This man and
woman were farmer Creech's people, and they had come sauntering along
the edge of uncut grass to make lazy love to each other. Dale turned
aside to avoid disturbing them.

As he returned toward the house presently, he thought of Norah's
unwonted pallor. Poor child, the heat seemed to be trying her more
than anybody. And he thought of how wan and limp and sad she looked
early this morning, when he had again sent her out of his office and
flatly refused to let her do any more writing or tidying for him. Even
her red lips had gone pale; she dropped her head; her white eyelids
and black lashes fluttered as she looked up at him piteously, seeming
to ask: "What have I done that you treat me like this, oh, my cruel
master?" He had driven his hands deep into his pockets, had shrugged
his shoulders, and spoken almost roughly--telling her to go about her
business, and not bother. He thought if he gave her time to do it, she
might cry again; and he did not want to see any more of her tears.

But off and on throughout the day he had watched her when she did not
in the least know that she was being observed. Just after breakfast he
had watched her as she scrubbed the kitchen floor, and had noticed the
pretty lines of her figure in these sprawling attitudes--her ankles,
stockings, and the upturned soles of her buckle-shoes.

He was watching her when she came up from the dairy with the pail that
held Mavis' afternoon supply of milk, and he