lot of them in the spring."

The stars were thick overhead. Becky looked up at them and relaxed a
little. Since Dalton had spoken to her over the wire she had gone
through the motions of doing normal things. She had eaten and talked,
and now she was sitting quite still on the step while Aunt Claudia
smoothed her hair, and the Judge talked of things to eat.

But shut up within her was a clock which ticked and never stopped. _"He
will come--when he thinks--you are mine---- He will come--when he
thinks--you are mine----"_

Randy and his mother arrived in Little Sister, with two of the boarders
for good measure in the back seat. They had dropped Major Prime at
Flippins', where he was to make a call on Madge MacVeigh. He had
promised to come later, however, if Randy would drive over and get him.

The rest of the boarders were packed variously into their cars and the
surrey, and as soon as they arrived they proceeded to occupy the lawn
and the porch, and to overflow the garden. They made a great deal of
pleasant noise about it, and the white gowns of the women, and the white
flannels of the men gave an impressionistic effect of faint blue against
the deeper blue of the night.

Within the house, the rugs were up in the drawing-room, the library, the
dining-room, and the wide hall; there sounded, presently, the tinkling
music of the phonograph, and there was the unceasing movement of
white-clad figures which seemed to float in a golden haze.

Becky danced a great deal, with Randy, with the younger boarders, and
with the genial gentleman. She laughed with an air of unaffected gayety.
And she felt that her heart stopped beating, when at last she looked up
and saw Dalton standing in the door.

She at once went towards him, and gave him her hand. "I wonder if you
know everybody?"

Her clear eyes met his without self-consciousness. He attempted a
swagger. "I don't want to know everybody. How do they happen to be
here?"

"I asked them. And they are really very nice."

He did not see the niceness. He had thought to find her in the setting
which belonged to her beauty. The silent night, the fragrance of the
garden, the pale statues among the trees, and himself playing the game
with a greater sense of its seriousness than ever before.

Throughout the evening George watched for a chance to see Becky alone.
Without conspicuously avoiding him, she had no time for him. He
complained constantly. "I want to talk to you. Run away