n end to the constraint
by shaking the young man's hand heartily, bidding him good-by, and
accompanying him to the door.

Once on their way, Mr. Brice's spirits returned. "I told you last
night," he said, "that I hoped to meet you the next time with a better
introduction. You suggested your uncle's. Well, are you satisfied?"

"But you didn't come to see ME," said the girl mischievously.

"How do you know what my intentions were?" returned the young man
gayly, gazing at the girl's charming face with a serious doubt as to the
singleness of his own intentions.

"Oh, because I know," she answered, with a toss of her brown head. "I
heard what you said to uncle Harry."

Mr. Brice's brow contracted. "Perhaps you saw me, too, when I came," he
said, with a slight touch of bitterness as he thought of his reception.

Miss Flo laughed. Brice walked on silently; the girl was heartless and
worthy of her education. After a pause she said demurely, "I knew he
wouldn't hurt you--but YOU didn't. That's where you showed your grit in
walking straight on."

"And I suppose you were greatly amused," he replied scornfully.

The girl lifted her arms a little wearily, as with a half sigh she
readjusted her brown braids under her uncle's gray slouch hat, which she
had caught up as she passed out. "Thar ain't much to laugh at here!" she
said. "But it was mighty funny when you tried to put your hat straight,
and then found thur was that bullet hole right through the brim! And the
way you stared at it--Lordy!"

Her musical laugh was infectious, and swept away his outraged dignity.
He laughed too. At last she said, gazing at his hat, "It won't do for
you to go back to your folks wearin' that sort o' thing. Here! Take
mine!" With a saucy movement she audaciously lifted his hat from his
head, and placed her own upon it.

"But this is your uncle's hat," he remonstrated.

"All the same; he spoiled yours," she laughed, adjusting his hat upon
her own head. "But I'll keep yours to remember you by. I'll loop it up
by this hole, and it'll look mighty purty. Jes' see!" She plucked a
wild rose from a bush by the wayside, and, passing the stalk through the
bullet hole, pinned the brim against the crown by a thorn. "There," she
said, putting on the hat again with a little affectation of coquetry,
"how's that?"

Mr. Brice thought it very picturesque and becoming to the graceful head
and laughing eyes beneath it, and said so. Then, becoming in his tur