f gratitude. "I'm no good at this sort of
thing. I haven't been brought up to it."

Joel seemed to have no reply ready, and the two willingly parted. John
found his chair by Tilly still unoccupied and sat down in it. Why didn't
she say something about the accident, he wondered. He decided to bring
it up himself, so ignorant was he of the ways of the new world to which
she had introduced him.

"I'm sorry about those things I broke," he began, hurriedly. "It wasn't
my fault. Those girls came out all of a sudden and faced me. I had to
get out of their way, you see, or smash right into them. So I--"

"I know. I saw it," Tilly interposed. "Never mind. Let it pass."

"But I've got to fix it somehow," John blundered on. "Nobody shall lose
through me. I am able to pay for any damage I do. Tell me who they
belonged to and I'll send the owner a whole set of plates and goblets. I
might not match the ones I broke, but--"

"Don't, don't think of that," Tilly urged, her pretty lips twitching
with almost maternal sympathy. "If you were to offer to pay it would
offend Sally."

"Offend her? Why, in the name of common sense?"

"I don't know, but it would hurt _me_--it would hurt _anybody_. It is of
no consequence."

"But you talked differently before it happened," John insisted, his lip
hanging and quivering. "You said distinctly that the things were
borrowed and that Miss Sally wanted--"

"Yes, but it is done now and the only thing is to forget it. Don't even
mention it to Sally."

"Not mention it to her? Why not?" John's tongue was thick with the
mystery in which he was warmly floundering.

"Because that would not be right--not according to--to custom."

"Custom be--" John bit off the oath with exasperated teeth. "I don't
care a hill of beans what the custom is here in these backwoods. I want
to pay my way in this life. I laid a cigar down one day against a
fellow's hat, and burned a big hole in it. I bought him another and it
tickled him to death. It was the best hat in town, while his was an old
one, and--"

"But this is different," Tilly pleaded. "Let it drop, please do. For my
sake don't say anything more about it. I'll explain what I mean some
other time."

That had to suffice. There was more music and dancing and the game of
"Stealing partners" on the lawn. Tilly asked John if he wanted to play
the game, but he confessed that he did not know what it was like. Saying
that it would not look well for them to sit to