inutes later he learned from Ruth that Roberta had gone back to
Miss Copeland's school with the girl, recovered but weak.

"Couldn't anybody else have gone?" he inquired, considerable impatience
in his voice.

"Of course--lots of people could, and would. Only it's just like Rob to
seize the chance to get away from this, and not come back. You'll
see--she won't. She hates being patted on the back, as she calls it. I
never can see why, when people mean it, as I'm sure they do to-night.
She's the queerest girl. She never wants what you'd think she would, or
wants it the way other people do. But she's awfully dear, just the
same," Ruth hastened to add, fearful lest she seem to criticise the
beloved sister. "And somehow you don't get tired of her, the way you do
of some people. Perhaps that's just because she's different."

"I suspect it is," Richard agreed with conviction. Certainly, a girl who
would run away from such adulation as she had been receiving must be, he
considered, decidedly and interestingly "different." He only wished he
might hit upon some "different" way to pique her interest.

CHAPTER XII

BLANKETS

There was destined to be a still longer break in the work which had been
going on in Judge Calvin Gray's library than was intended. He and his
assistant had barely resumed their labours after the Christmas
house-party when the Judge was called out of town for a period whose
limit when he left he was unable to fix. He could leave little for
Richard to do, so that young man found his time again upon his hands and
himself unable to dispose of it to advantage.

His mind at this period was in a curious state of dissatisfaction. Ever
since the evening of the Christmas dance, when a girl's careless word
had struck home with such unexpected force he had been as restless and
uneasy as a fish out of water. His condition bore as much resemblance to
that of the gasping fish as this: in the old element of life about town,
as he had been in the habit of living it, he now had the sensation of
not being able to breathe freely.

It was with the intention of getting into the open, both mentally and
physically, that on the second day following the Judge's departure
Richard started on a long drive in his car. Beyond a certain limit he
knew that the roads were likely to prove none too good, though the
winter had thus far been an open one and there was little chance of his
encountering blocking snowdrifts "up State.