utterly unliked.

"I wish you would reconsider, Miss Mason," he said softly. "Not alone
for the mare's sake, but for my sake. Money don't cut any ice in this.
For me to buy that mare wouldn't mean as it does to most men to send a
bouquet of flowers or a box of candy to a young lady. And I've never
sent you flowers or candy." He observed the warning flash of her eyes,
and hurried on to escape refusal. "I'll tell you what we'll do.
Suppose I buy the mare and own her myself, and lend her to you when you
want to ride. There's nothing wrong in that. Anybody borrows a horse
from anybody, you know."

Agin he saw refusal, and headed her off.

"Lots of men take women buggy-riding. There's nothing wrong in that.
And the man always furnishes the horse and buggy. Well, now, what's the
difference between my taking you buggy-riding and furnishing the horse
and buggy, and taking you horse-back-riding and furnishing the horses?"

She shook her head, and declined to answer, at the same time looking at
the door as if to intimate that it was time for this unbusinesslike
conversation to end. He made one more effort.

"Do you know, Miss Mason, I haven't a friend in the world outside you?
I mean a real friend, man or woman, the kind you chum with, you know,
and that you're glad to be with and sorry to be away from. Hegan is
the nearest man I get to, and he's a million miles away from me.
Outside business, we don't hitch. He's got a big library of books, and
some crazy kind of culture, and he spends all his off times reading
things in French and German and other outlandish lingoes--when he ain't
writing plays and poetry. There's nobody I feel chummy with except you,
and you know how little we've chummed--once a week, if it didn't rain,
on Sunday. I've grown kind of to depend on you. You're a sort
of--of--of--"

"A sort of habit," she said with a smile.

"That's about it. And that mare, and you astride of her, coming along
the road under the trees or through the sunshine--why, with both you
and the mare missing, there won't be anything worth waiting through
the week for. If you'd just let me buy her back--"

"No, no; I tell you no." Dede rose impatiently, but her eyes were
moist with the memory of her pet. "Please don't mention her to me
again. If you think it was easy to part with her, you are mistaken.
But I've seen the last of her, and I want to forget her."

Daylight made no answer, and the door closed behind hi