k faster," I said, "and no doubt I will get you to your
house before the shower is upon us. At any rate, I hope you won't be
much wet."

"Oh, it doesn't matter about me in the least," she said. "I shall be
at home and can put on dry clothes, but you will be soaked through and
have to go on. You haven't any coat on!"

If I had known there was any probability of rain I should have put on
my coat before I started out on this somewhat unusual method of
travelling, but there was no help for it now, and all I could do was
to hurry on. From walking fast I began to trot. The drops were coming
down quite frequently.

"Won't that tire you dreadfully?" she said.

"Not at all," I replied. "I could run like this for a long distance."

[Illustration: "I PUT ON MY COAT"]

She looked up at me with a little smile. I think she must have
forgotten the pain in her foot.

"It must be nice to be strong like that," she said.

Now the rain came down faster, and my companion declared that I ought
to stop and put on my coat. I agreed to this, and when I came to a
suitable tree by the road-side, I carefully leaned her against it and
detached my coat from my bicycle. But just as I was about to put it on
I glanced at the young girl. She had on a thin shirt-waist, and I
could see that the shoulders of it were already wet. I advanced
towards her, holding out my coat. "I must lay this over you," I said.
"I am afraid now that I shall not get you to your home before it
begins to rain hard."

She turned to me so suddenly that I made ready to catch her if her
unguarded movement should overturn her machine. "You mustn't do that
at all!" she said. "It doesn't matter whether I am wet or not. I do
not have to travel in wet clothes, and you do. Please put on your coat
and let us hurry!"

I obeyed her, and away we went again, the rain now coming down hard
and fast. For some minutes she did not say anything; but I did not
wonder at this, for circumstances were not favorable to conversation.
But presently, in spite of the rain and our haste, she spoke:

"It must seem dreadfully ungrateful and hard-hearted in me to say to
you, after all you have done for me, that you must go on in the rain.
Anybody would think that I ought to ask you to come into our house and
wait until the storm is over. But, really, I do not see how I can do
it."

I urged her not for a moment to think of me. I was hardy, and did not
mind rain, and when I was mounted upon my whee