riting something for Johanna?" and when she said, "Yass, seh," he knew
the bashful lie was part of her complicity in a matter she did not
understand, but only hoped it was some rascality. A secret delight
filled her bosom as he mounted and walked his horse out of sight. She
stopped with lifted head and let her joy tell itself in a smiling
whisper:

"Trott'n'!" She hearkened again; the smile widened; the voice rose:
"Gallopin'!" Her eyes dilated merrily and she cried aloud:

"Ga-allopin', ga-allopin', lippetty-clip, down Zigzag Hill!" Her smile
became a laugh, the laugh a song, the song a dance which joined the
lightness of a butterfly with the grace of a girl whose mothers had
never worn a staylace, and she ran with tossing arms and willowy
undulations to kiss her image in Daphne's glass.

With a hundred or so of small stones rattling at his horse's heels John
reached the foot of "Zigzag Hill," turned with the forest road once or
twice more, noticed, by the tracks, that Johanna's horse was walking,
and at another angle saw her just ahead timorously working her animal
sidewise to the edge of the way.

"Johanna," he began as he dashed up--"O!--don't get scared--didn't you
come out here in hopes to somehow let me know"--he took on a look of
angry distress--"that the Suez folks are talking?"

The girl started and stammered, but the young man knitted his brows
worse. "Umhm. That's all right." His horse leaped so that he had to look
back to see her, as he added more kindly:

"I'm much obliged to you, Johanna--Good-by."

The face he had thus taken by surprise tried, too late, to smile away
the signs that its owner was grieved and hurt. A few rods farther on
John wheeled around and trotted back. Her pulse bounded with gratitude.

"Johanna, of course, if I stay here I shall keep entirely out of Mrs.
Ravenel's sight, or----"

The girl made a despairing gesture that brought John's frown again.

"Why, what?" he asked with a perplexed smile.

"Law! Mr. Mahch, you cayn't all of a sudden do dat; dey'll on'y talk
wuss."

"Well, Johanna--I'm not going to try it. I'm going to take the express
train this evening." He started on, but checked up once more and faced
around. "O--eh--Johanna, I'd rather you'd not speak of this, you
understand. I natu'ly don't want Mrs. Ravenel to know why I go; but I'm
even more particular about General Halliday. It's none o' his--hm! I
say I don't want him to know. Well, good-by. O--eh--Johanna,