astily, as he came toward her,--"you mustn't--you
mustn't. I don't believe that she really is asleep and even if she is,
Lucinda is _everywhere_."

"Where can we go?" Jack asked in despair. "It's out of all reason to
expect me to behave _all_ the time."

"We can't go anywhere," said Mrs. Rosscott; "we must resign ourselves.
I've learned that it's the only way. Dear me, when I think how long I've
been resigned it certainly seems to me that you might do a little in the
same line."

"Well, but I haven't learned to resign myself," said her lover, "and what
is more, I positively decline to learn to resign myself. You should do the
same, too. Where is the sense in humoring her so? I wouldn't if I were
you."

Janice lifted up her lovely eyes.

"Oh, yes, you would," she said simply. "If somebody's future happiness
depended upon her you would humor her just as much as I do."

Jack was touched.

"You are an angel of unselfishness," he exclaimed, warmly, "and I don't
deserve such devotion."

"Oh, don't be too grateful," she replied, dimpling. "The person to whose
future happiness I referred was myself."

They both laughed softly at that--softly and mutually.

"Nevertheless," Jack went on after a minute, "if to all the other puzzles
is to be added the torture of being unable to see you or speak freely to
you, I think the hour for action has arrived."

"For action!" she cried; "what are you thinking of doing?"

"This," he said, and straightway took her into his arms and kissed her as
he had kissed her on the night before.

"Oh, if Lucinda has heard or your aunt has seen!" poor Janice cried,
extricating herself and setting her cap to rights with a species of
fluttered haste that led Jack to wonder suddenly why men didn't fall in
love with maids even oftener than they do. "I do believe that you have
gone and done it this time."

"Nobody heard and nobody saw," he assured her, but he didn't at all mean
what he said, for his prayers were fervent that his kiss had been public
property.

And such was the fact.

Lucinda bounced in on Joshua with a bounce that turned the can of harness
polish upside down, for Joshua was oiling the harnesses.

"He kissed her!" she cried in a state of tremendous excitement.

"Well, she's his aunt, ain't she?" Joshua demanded, picking up the can and
privately wishing Lucinda in Halifax.

"I don't mean her;--I mean Janice."

"I don't see anythin' surprisin' in that," said Joshua,--"not