or hat and was
fairly flying down the steps and out into the street.

"I hope to goodness that I shall escape Jack to-night!" she muttered.
"He can not get out as soon as I do, and I will be almost home while he
is waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs;" and a little, light,
airy laugh bubbled from her red lips.

Jack, as she called him, was one of the gilders in the book-bindery--a
tall, handsome, manly young fellow of four-and-twenty, whose only
failing was that he loved little Dorothy Glenn to distraction.

"Yes, I shall escape Jack, sure, to-night!" laughed Dorothy again.

But the laugh died from her lips, for at that instant there was the
sound of hurried footsteps behind her--footsteps she knew but too
well--and the next instant Jack Garner stood beside her.

"Dorothy!" he panted, "Why didn't you wait for me, little girl?"

Dorothy started guiltily.

"Why, gracious! is it you, Jack?" she cried. "I certainly thought you
had gone home long ago, and so I hurried away."

His handsome face brightened; the dark shadow was quickly dispelled from
his earnest, brown eyes.

"Do you know, Dorothy," he said, "I was half afraid that you had run
away from me intentionally; and yet I could hardly bring myself to
believe it, the thought gave me such a sharp pang of pain at the heart."
The girl laughed a little nervously.

"I wanted to talk to you about Labor Day," he said earnestly; "but I
fear what I have to say will grieve you, dear." ("Oh, gracious goodness,
that's just what I expected!" was the thought that flashed through her
guilty little brain.) "Dorothy," he said, huskily, "I'm afraid that I
will not be able to get off Labor Day, although it is a legal holiday
and I had set my heart upon taking you somewhere. We have found that
there is some work which must be got out, or it will mean a heavy loss
to our employers. I was the only one whom they felt they could call upon
to help them in their dilemma, and I could not refuse them, even though
a vision of your pretty, disappointed face rose up before my mind's eye.
I knew you would be expecting me to take you somewhere on Labor Day. Oh!
Dorothy, how can I make amends for it?"

To his great surprise, she laughed gayly.

"Don't trouble yourself about me, Jack," she exclaimed. "I won't mind it
one bit;" and her pink-and-white face fairly dimpled over with smiles.

He opened his brown eyes wide and looked at her in surprise, remembering
quite well that for man