gratuitous suggestions."

She walked on, more slowly, for a yard or two. "I couldn't speak
yesterday. I meant to have told you today."

"Oh, I'm not reproaching you for your lack of confidence. Only, if you
HAD told me, I should have been more sure of your really meaning what
you said to me yesterday."

She did not ask him to what he referred, and he saw that her parting
words to him lived as vividly in her memory as in his.

"Is it so important that you should be sure?" she finally questioned.

"Not to you, naturally," he returned with involuntary asperity. It was
incredible, yet it was a fact, that for the moment his immediate purpose
in seeking to speak to her was lost under a rush of resentment at
counting for so little in her fate. Of what stuff, then, was his feeling
for her made? A few hours earlier she had touched his thoughts as little
as his senses; but now he felt old sleeping instincts stir in him...
A rush of rain dashed against his face, and, catching Sophy's hat,
strained it back from her loosened hair. She put her hands to her head
with a familiar gesture...He came closer and held his umbrella over
her...

At the lodge he waited while she went in. The rain continued to stream
down on him and he shivered in the dampness and stamped his feet on the
flags. It seemed to him that a long time elapsed before the door opened
and she reappeared. He glanced into the house for a glimpse of Anna, but
obtained none; yet the mere sense of her nearness had completely altered
his mood.

The child, Sophy told him, was doing well; but Mrs. Leath had decided to
wait till the surgeon came. Darrow, as they turned away, looked through
the gates, and saw the doctor's old-fashioned carriage by the roadside.

"Let me tell the doctor's boy to drive you back," he suggested; but
Sophy answered: "No; I'll walk," and he moved on toward the house at her
side. She expressed no surprise at his not remaining at the lodge, and
again they walked on in silence through the rain. She had accepted
the shelter of his umbrella, but she kept herself at such a carefully
measured distance that even the slight swaying movements produced by
their quick pace did not once bring her arm in touch with his; and,
noticing this, he perceived that every drop of her blood must be alive
to his nearness.

"What I meant just now," he began, "was that you ought to have been sure
of my good wishes."

She seemed to weigh the words. "Sure enough for wha