tts point'; you've laid it all down to my 'Middle-Western love
of Puritan relics' and 'Eastern culturine,' and scorned my 'romantic
inexperience'; and here you come, redolent of Europe, to be as much
impressed by our choice as if you were a Montana school-girl!" He smiled
back, but it was obvious that he hadn't heard a word. "What's the matter
with you, Jacky?" she asked interestedly; "had a bad journey?"

He tried to concentrate his faculties on looking genial and at the same
time intelligent.

"It was just like me, Julia," he began, the ghost of cheerfulness on
his face. "I took the earliest sort of train, instead of the one I
telephoned you I'd take. You see, to have landed at night, after all
the years--think of it! And then to go walking around by myself, seeing
things crop suddenly up that I hadn't thought of since--well--scarcely
since I was born. No wonder I couldn't sleep. This morning, like a
stranded idiot, I got out at that little way-station of yours, and
realized for the first time that I didn't have a blessed idea where
you lived."

"Rockface is about as enormous as a biscuit. Anybody could have told
you."

"That's the strangest part of it," recollected Hastings. "You see, I
had a curious hunch about it; I felt a little forsaken. I was actually
surprised and irritated that somebody--I didn't know who--wasn't waiting
to meet me.

"There was something about the place, Julia," he gravely pursued, "made
me feel justified in thinking a hospitable welcome was due me ... Oh
I don't mean because you were here! But--well--the veil of sea-turn
that half-hid the buildings across the square made me feel the need of
some kind of greeting--I expected one!--right on the spot! Can you
understand? And--instead--the cold east wind blew round me as if I were
an outcast.

"I stole down the first crooked street I came to. I stared at the
house-fronts, at the little square panes of the sagging window-sashes,
at the dingy doors, with those short, steep flights of steps leading
down to the side-walks."

Julia sobered to a tentative frown. Jack's eyes were bigger than
usual, and he did look, notwithstanding the feverish flush on his
cheeks, rather fagged. How she had been counting the days for him
to come! It didn't seem possible that the visit which he had been
promising for so long to make her should have finally materialized.
Wasn't it really an indication,--she pondered while again happily she
sized up the situation