ad
received permission to walk with her in whatever direction she might be
taking.

"I have been away for a week," she answered, "and there has been a number
of things to see to since my return. I have been very busy. You know I
have a studio away from my home where I paint all day. Your cousin has
bought a number of my pictures."

"She spoke of them. I am anxious to see them; and I knew you were away,"
he said. "I knew it psychologically. The town was full of people and yet,
at the same time, it was very empty." That faint and lovely carnation on
her cheek! "And Kitty Hampton told me that you had been away with her,"
he rather tamely concluded.

"Yes," she said, it seemed to him indifferently. Then with a change of
tone, as if warning him from dangerous ground: "How absurd our
acquaintance has been!"

"Does it strike you so?" he asked sadly. "To me it is the most
delightful, the most beautiful thing that ever happened."

"I should not be at all surprised," she said calmly, almost too calmly,
and with premeditated irrelevance, "if Kitty and Bea were both of them
awaiting me now." His boldness was incapable of ruffling her composure;
but, nevertheless, he saw with a secret joy the telltale and
uncontrollable carnation again fly to her cheek.

But Hayden had not even approached the limits of his courage. He had been
too much baffled in his attempts to find her, she had proved too elusive
for him to permit her lightly to slip through his fingers again, as it
were, now, when he had the opportunity to press his claims for further
recognition. Should a man who had succeeded more than once through bold
but not displeasing words in causing the scarlet to stain that cheek of
cream, carelessly forgo any chance for future experiment?

"Surely, you won't leave me on your door-step this dreary afternoon," he
pleaded. "I would never have suspected you of such hardness of heart.
Why, it amounts almost to--to--brutality," casting about him for a good
strong word. "You will pass on into light and warmth and comfort; tea,
the cheering cup, and cakes, no doubt cakes, while I am left out in this
gray depressing atmosphere, night coming on, the rain falling--"

"Rain! Oh, nonsense. You have overshot your mark." She lifted her face to
the sky. "Not a drop," scornfully.

He stripped his glove from his hand and held out the bare palm. "I
thought so," with calm triumph. "A steady drizzle. You don't feel it yet
because of your hat; bu