, rushing nearer.

And suddenly the woods at their right began to thresh about, with a
surprised rustling, and a low mutter, as of smothered warning, ran over
the shoulder of the mountain.

"Rain! As sure as the Lord made little rain drops," said Johnny
unconcerned. "There's going to be a cloudful spilled on us," he told the
troubled girl, "but it won't last a moment. Come into the wood and find
the dry side of a tree."

He caught at her hand and brought her crashing through the underbrush,
pushing through thickets till they were in the center of a great group
of maples, their heavy boughs spread protectingly above.

A giant tree trunk protected her upon one side; upon the other Johnny
drew close, spreading his sweater across her shoulders. Looking upwards,
Maria Angelina could not see the sky; above and about her was soft
greenness, like a fairy bower. And when the rain came pouring like hail
upon the leaves scarcely a drop won through to her.

They stood very still, unmoving, unspeaking while the shower fell. There
was an unreal dreamlike quality about the happening to the girl. Then,
almost intrusively, she became deeply aware of his presence there beside
her--and conscious that he was aware of hers.

She shivered.

"Cold," said Johnny, in a jumpy voice, and put a hand on her shoulders,
guarded by his sweater.

"N-no," she whispered.

"Feel dry?"

His hand moved upward to her bared head, lingered there upon the heavy
braids.

"Yes," she told him, faintly as before.

"But you're shivering."

"I don't like t-thunder," she told him absurdly, as a muttering roll
shook the air above them.

His hand, still hovering over her hair, went down against her cheek and
pressed her to him. She could hear his heart beating. It sounded as
loudly in his breast as her own. She had a sense of sudden,
unpremeditated emotion.

She felt his lips upon the back of her neck.

She tried to draw away, and suddenly he let her go and gave a short,
unsteady laugh.

"It's all right, Ri-Ri--you're my little pal, aren't you?" he murmured.

Unseeingly she nodded, drawing a long, shaken breath. Then as he started
to draw her nearer again she moved away, putting up her arms to her hair
in a gesture that instinctively shielded the confusion of her face.

"No? . . . All right, Ri-Ri, I won't crowd you," he murmured. "But oh,
you little Beauty Girl, you ought to be in a cage with bars about. . . .
You ought to wear a mask--a regul