ll Strong!" she cried, stepping quickly
toward him and holding out her hand. "I _hoped_ it was you!"

He took the offered hand, and said to himself that his own was
consecrated by the touch to clean deeds forever. He would not have
known how to address her, but he followed her leading.

"It is Winifred Northrop!" he said. "What is it? Can I do something
for you?"

"You are school-committee man, are you not?" Anxiety, relief, and
trust mingled in her voice.

"Trustee--yes. Why," he cried, "it isn't possible that _you_ are the
lady!"

She laughed. "I suppose the lady must be I."

He did not smile. He even lost color with wrath. "Garvey has dared to
play you some trick!--I did not dream--" he went on, eagerly, "Garvey
kept the letters in his hands, and bungled over the name, so I did not
once fairly catch it."

He turned back to his corner, and put the remaining bit of proof into
his pocket. New heavens and new earth had come into existence since
the last pencil mark on it.

"Jim," he said, "I'm called off on school-business. You get as much of
that set up as you can before dinner, and then lock up; and I'll come
down and make the corrections in the editorials before I go to bed.
Now--Winifred--if I may walk home with you, we'll get to the bottom
of Garvey's tricks. Villain!"

The epithet was so fervent, and so entirely without humorous intent,
that Miss Northrop laughed again as they walked out into the dull, hot
September afternoon sun. The board sidewalk was uneven and full of
projecting nails and splinters, and she held her thin, blue-gray dress
prettily aside from them; Will noted the gesture with admiration as
intense as unreasonable. It seemed to him peculiarly admirable that
she should draw her hat a little forward to shade her eyes, and should
take just the length of step that she did; the absolutely right step
for a lady was thenceforth settled; since then, he has insisted
unreasonably upon a certain shade as the only right thing in gray, as
if he held in his own mind some positive standard beyond the realm of
variable taste.

The two or three business blocks--rows of slight frame-buildings, more
of them saloons than would seem possible--were very quiet; Green's
Ferry is the shipping point of a wide stock-raising district, and
all its activity centres about the railroad station at stated times
daily. The justly aroused fellow-townsmen were all back under the
awnings--leaning against the wall by the