ntinue their flight.

"No, Tom; no!"

"Then why?" he persisted. "It can't be because of Lois--you can't
suspect that even the thought of her wounds me now. Jack's coming back
proved that to me: I mean what I say; I don't care any more! There's
nothing for me in this world but you--you and Phil! The memory of that
other woman is gone; I give myself to you as though she had never
been."

"Oh, Tom, I don't believe you! I don't believe any man like you ever
forgets! And Phil mustn't know you even think you have forgotten! That
would be wrong; it would be a great sin! She must never think you have
forgotten the woman who is her mother. And it isn't right that you
should forget! There are men that might, but not you--not you, dear
Tom!"

She shook off his hands and flung herself against the storm. He plunged
after her, following perforce. It was impossible to talk, so blinding
was the slant of snow and sleet in their faces. She drove on with the
energy born of a new determination, and he made no effort to speak again
as he tramped beside her.

When they reached the house in Buckeye Lane he sought to detain her with
a plaintive "Please, Nan?" But she rapped on the door and when Rose
opened it slipped in, throwing a breathless good-night over her
shoulder.

CHAPTER XIII

THE BEST INTERESTS OF MONTGOMERY

Phil dropped into the "Evening Star" office to write an item about the
approaching Christmas fair at Center Church, for which she was the
publicity agent. Incidentally she asked Billy Barker, the editor, to
instruct her in the delicate art of proof-reading. As he was an old
friend she did not mind letting him into the secret of "The Dogs of Main
Street." Barker's editorial sense was immediately roused by Phil's
disclosure. He said he would write to "Journey's End" for advance sheets
and make it a first-page feature the day it appeared.

Montgomery was a literary center; in the early eighties it had been
referred to by the Boston "Transcript" as the Hoosier Athens; and the
Athenians withheld not the laurel from the brows of their bards,
romancers, and essayists. Not since Barker had foreshadowed the
publication of "The Deathless Legion," General Whitcomb's famous tale of
the Caesars, had anything occurred that promised so great a sensation as
the news that Phil had ventured into the field of authorship. Barker
even fashioned phrases in which he meant to publish the glad
tidings,--"a brilliant addition to the