ble.' When I'm strong
enough to keep stiff in the face of any temptation, then I'll come back,
little Vicar." Then he had stooped and kissed her hastily on both
cheeks, and started off down the road, with her watching him through a
blur of tears, because it seemed that all the good times in the world
had suddenly come to an end. Away down the road he had turned to look
back and wave his hat, and she had caught up her white sunbonnet and
swung it high by its one limp string.

Afterward, when she went back to the swing by the beehives, she recalled
all the old stories she had ever heard of knights who went out into the
world to seek their fortunes, and waved farewell to some ladye fair in
her watch-tower. She felt, in a vague way, that she had been bidden
farewell by a brave knight errant. Although she was burning with
curiosity when she delivered the message about the turquoises and Alaka,
and wondered why Lloyd and Joyce exchanged such meaning glances,
something kept her from asking questions, and she had gone on wondering
all these years what it meant, and why there was such a sorry look in
his eyes when he gazed out toward the old Camelback Mountain. Now, in
the wisdom of her fourteen years, she began to suspect what the trouble
had been, and resolved to ask Joyce for the solution of the mystery.

Now that Phil was twenty years old and doing a man's work in the world,
she supposed she ought to call him Mr. Tremont, or, at least, Mr. Phil.
Probably in his travels, with all the important things that a civil
engineer has to think of, he had forgotten her and the way he had romped
with her at the Wigwam, and how he had saved her life the time the
Indian chased her. Being the bridegroom's brother and best man at the
wedding, he would scarcely notice her. Or, if he did cast a glance in
her direction, she had grown so much probably he never would recognize
her. Still, if he _should_ remember her, she wanted to appear at her
best advantage, and she began considering what was the best her wardrobe
afforded.

She lay there some time trying to decide whether she should be all in
white when she met him, or in the dress with the little sprigs of
forget-me-nots sprinkled over it. White was appropriate for all
occasions, still the forget-me-nots would be suggestive. Then she
remembered her mother's remark about that shade of blue being a trying
one for her to wear. That recalled Mom Beck's prescription for
beautifying the complex