be. She had been home for six
days, and if she had meant to call--

"Hello," he said.

It was Lily. Something that had been like a band around his heart
suddenly loosened, to fasten about his throat. His voice sounded
strangled and strange.

"Why, yes," he said, in the unfamiliar voice. "I'd like to come, of
course."

Edith Boyd watched and listened, with a slightly strained look in her
eyes.

"To dinner? But--I don't think I'd better come to dinner."

"Why not, Willy?"

Mr. William Wallace Cameron glanced around. There was no one about save
Miss Boyd, who was polishing the nails of one hand on the palm of the
other.

"May I come in a business suit?"

"Why, of course. Why not?"

"I didn't know," said Willy Cameron. "I didn't know what your people
would think. That's all. To-morrow at eight, then. Thanks."

He hung up the receiver and walked to the door, where he stood looking
out and seeing nothing. She had not forgotten. He was going to see her.
Instead of standing across the street by the park fence, waiting for
a glimpse of her which never came, he was to sit in the room with her.
There would be--eight from eleven was three--three hours of her.

What a wonderful day it was! Spring was surely near. He would like to be
able to go and pick up Jinx, and then take a long walk through the park.
He needed movement. He needed to walk off his excitement or he felt that
he might burst with it.

"Eight o'clock!" said Edith. "I wish you joy, waiting until eight for
supper."

He had to come back a long, long way to her.

"'May I come in a business suit?'" she mimicked him. "My evening clothes
have not arrived yet. My valet's bringing them up to town to-morrow."

Even through the radiant happiness that surrounded him like a mist, he
caught the bitterness under her raillery. It puzzled him.

"It's a young lady I knew at camp. I was in an army camp, you know."

"Is her name a secret?"

"Why, no. It is Cardew. Miss Lily Cardew."

"I believe you--not."

"But it is," he said, genuinely concerned. "Why in the world should I
give you a wrong name?"

Her eyes were fixed on his face.

"No. You wouldn't. But it makes me laugh, because--well, it was crazy,
anyhow."

"What was crazy?"

"Something I had in my mind. Just forget it. I'll tell you what will
happen, Mr. Cameron. You'll stay here about six weeks. Then you'll get a
job at the Cardew Mills. They use chemists there, and you will be--"

She lifted h