d? His
voice was kind and cajoling as he replied:

"What are you doing in town, Uncle Buzz? Isn't the store open to-day?
Mr. Claybrook! Mr. Mosby!"

Uncle Buzz acknowledged the honour and then he turned on Joe a
dignified but hurt surprise. "I come to town quite frequently," he
said, clipping his words. "A Mr. Forbes of Boston wrote me to meet him
here about some saddle horses." This was said quietly but with proper
emphasis. Joe wondered how far it strayed from the truth. There were
only two saddlers left, he knew. Uncle Buzz was swaying slightly to
and fro and the little table was rapidly becoming the cynosure of all
eyes. Mary Louise looked about her desperately. Uncle Buzz, smiling
sweetly in the aisle, and threatening at any moment to shatter the
illusion by falling prostrate, was entirely ignorant of her distress.
The tables were reversed. Claybrook was silent; Joe held the centre of
the conversational stage.

Suddenly Mary Louise arose. "We must be going," she said. She paused,
gave them all an uncertain smile, and then she started rapidly for the
door. Old Mr. Mosby looked mildly surprised, then accepted the
situation as one too complex for his muddled brain. And Joe, after a
first flare of anger, followed her in silence, leaving Claybrook and
Uncle Buzz to contest the honours after him.

They parted in the lobby; Mary Louise with a bright spot on either
cheek and her lips set in their tightest line; Claybrook suave and
genial; Uncle Buzz bewildered and in some way wistfully regretful.
His watery blue eyes held in them an unanswered question that seemed
too ponderous for utterance. Joe was silent.

He took her home, along the deserted streets as quickly as possible.
For a long time neither spoke. Then it was some trivial amenity that
she uttered to which he made even shorter reply. Up in the elevator
they went, silently watching the floor. At the door of her apartment
he inclined his head. "Good-night," he said, without offering to shake
hands.

"What's the matter, Joe?" she asked, suddenly coming to herself and
realizing the oversight.

"Not a thing," he said. "It's perfectly all right with me." He turned
to go.

"Oh!" The exclamation was almost involuntary. She shrank back a little
into the shadow. "It was a nice party."

He made no reply but acknowledged this with another slight inclination
of the head. And then he started down the hall.

For a moment she stood and listened to the muffled sound