in the office. Neither do I. It's part of the whole thing, I
guess; a man ain't supposed to talk anything but business with his
stenographer. Will you ride with me next Sunday, and we can talk it
over thoroughly then and reach some sort of a conclusion. Out in the
hills is the place where you can talk something besides business. I
guess you've seen enough of me to know I'm pretty square. I--I do
honor and respect you, and ... and all that, and I..." He was
beginning to flounder, and the hand that rested on the desk blotter was
visibly trembling. He strove to pull himself together. "I just want to
harder than anything ever in my life before. I--I--I can't explain
myself, but I do, that's all. Will you?--Just next Sunday? To-morrow?"

Nor did he dream that her low acquiescence was due, as much as anything
else, to the beads of sweat on his forehead, his trembling hand, and
his all too-evident general distress.

CHAPTER XIV

"Of course, there's no way of telling what anybody wants from what they
say." Daylight rubbed Bob's rebellious ear with his quirt and
pondered with dissatisfaction the words he had just uttered. They did
not say what he had meant them to say. "What I'm driving at is that
you say flatfooted that you won't meet me again, and you give your
reasons, but how am I to know they are your real reasons? Mebbe you
just don't want to get acquainted with me, and won't say so for fear of
hurting my feelings. Don't you see? I'm the last man in the world to
shove in where I'm not wanted. And if I thought you didn't care a
whoop to see anything more of me, why, I'd clear out so blamed quick
you couldn't see me for smoke."

Dede smiled at him in acknowledgment of his words, but rode on
silently. And that smile, he thought, was the most sweetly wonderful
smile he had ever seen. There was a difference in it, he assured
himself, from any smile she had ever given him before.

It was the smile of one who knew him just a little bit, of one who was
just the least mite acquainted with him. Of course, he checked himself
up the next moment, it was unconscious on her part. It was sure to
come in the intercourse of any two persons.

Any stranger, a business man, a clerk, anybody after a few casual
meetings would show similar signs of friendliness. It was bound to
happen, but in her case it made more impression on him; and, besides,
it was such a sweet and wonderful smile. Other women he had known