pped at Corinna's door. "She's
bound to be late anyhow," he thought, "no harm to hurry her up a
little."

But no, she was hatted, gloved and waiting just inside the door. This
little fact won his gratitude surprisingly; a man does not expect it of
a woman. In the sunlight they took in each other anew. What Corinna
thought did not appear, but Evan was freshly delighted. She was an
out-of-doors girl it appeared; the morning became her like a shining
garment. He forgot the argument; it was sufficient to be with her, to
laugh with her, to be ravished by the dusky, velvety tones of her voice.

Of the hours that followed it is unnecessary to speak in detail. It
was one long rhapsody, and rhapsodies are apt to be a little tiresome
to those other than the rhapsodists. Everybody has known such hours
for themselves--or if they have not they are unfortunate. They
breakfasted frugally--there is a delicious intimacy in breakfast no
other meal knows, and then decided on Staten Island. Half an hour
later they were voyaging down the bay, and in an hour were in the woods.

Corinna was inexorable on the question of eleven o'clock, and to Evan
it seemed as if they had no sooner got there than they had to turn back
again. Evan got sore, and the pleasure of the return journey was a
little dimmed, though there is a kind of sweetness in these little
tiffs too. Anybody seeing their eyes on each other, Corinna's as well
as Evan's, would have known they were no brother and sister, but they
still kept up the fiction.

As they neared home she said: "Do you mind if I go in alone?"

"Are you ashamed to be seen with me?" demanded Evan scowling.

"Silly! Didn't I propose this trip? The reason is very simple. Your
ridiculous landlady looks on every man in the house as her property. I
don't want to excite her ill-will, that's all."

Evan could not deny the truth of this characterisation of Carmen. "Go
on ahead," he said. "I'll hang around in the Park for a while. See
you to-night."

She stopped, and gave him an inscrutable look. "Oh, I'm sorry, I
shan't be home to-night."

With this the ugly head of Corinna's mystery popped up again. It had
been tormenting Evan all morning, but with a lover's pride he would not
question her, and she volunteered no information.

"Oh!" said Evan flatly, and waited for her to say more.

But she seemed not to be aware that anything more was required and his
brow darkened. "If it was me," h