of herself.
He laughed with boyish gayety. It danced in his eyes, and gave spring to
every movement of his slender wiry body. She felt its contagion enfold
her.

His laughter melted into a song. In a voice vibrant with joy he sang, "If
you get there before I do, tell 'em I'm comin' too!"

As Elsie listened, her anger grew as she recalled the amazing folly that
had induced her to tell the secret feelings of her inmost soul to this man
almost a stranger. Whence came this miracle of influence about him, this
gift of intimacy? She felt a shock as if she had been immodest. She was in
an agony of doubt as to what he was thinking of her, and dreaded to meet
his gaze.

And yet, when he turned toward her, his whole being a smiling compound of
dark Southern blood and bone and fire, at the sound of his voice all doubt
and questioning melted.

"Do you know," he said earnestly, "that you are the funniest, most
charming girl I ever met?"

"Thanks. I've heard your experience has been large for one of your age."

Ben's eyes danced.

"Perhaps, yes. You appeal to things in me that I didn't know were
there--to all the senses of body and soul at once. Your strength of mind,
with its conceits, and your quick little temper seem so odd and out of
place, clothed in the gentleness of your beauty."

"I was never more serious in my life. There are other things more personal
about you that I do not like."

"What?"

"Your cavalier habits."

"Cavalier fiddlesticks. There are no Cavaliers in my country. We are all
Covenanter and Huguenot folks. The idea that Southern boys are lazy
loafing dreamers is a myth. I was raised on the catechism."

"You love to fish and hunt and frolic--you flirt with every girl you meet,
and you drink sometimes. I often feel that you are cruel and that I do not
know you."

Ben's face grew serious, and the red scar in the edge of his hair suddenly
became livid with the rush of blood.

"Perhaps I don't mean that you shall know all yet," he said slowly. "My
ideal of a man is one that leads, charms, dominates, and yet eludes. I
confess that I'm close kin to an angel and a devil, and that I await a
woman's hand to lead me into the ways of peace and life."

The spiritual earnestness of the girl was quick to catch the subtle appeal
of his last words. His broad, high forehead, straight, masterly nose, with
its mobile nostrils, seemed to her very manly at just that moment and very
appealing. A soft answer was on