n icicle.

"I do not want you to feel worse than you can help," she said, "but it
was necessary for me to speak as firmly and decidedly as I could, and
now it is all settled."

I knew it was all settled. I knew it as well as if it had been settled
for years. But, with my eyes still ardently fixed on her, I remembered
the little flush when she came into the room.

"Tell me one thing," said I, "and I will go. If it were not for what
you say about your position in life, and all that--if there had not
been such a place as this inn--then could you--"

She moved away from me. "You are as great a bear as the other one!"
she exclaimed, and turning she left the room by a door in the rear.
But in the next moment she ran back, holding out her hand. "Good-bye!"
she said.

I took her hand, but held it not a second. Then she was gone. I stood
looking at the door which she had closed behind her, and then I left
the house. There was no reason why I should stay in that place another
minute.

As I was about to mount my bicycle the boy came around the corner of
the inn. Upon his face was a diabolical grin. The thought rushed into
my mind that he might have been standing beneath the parlor window.
Instinctively I made a movement towards him, but he did not run. I
turned my eyes away from him and mounted. I could not kill a boy in
the presence of a nurse-maid.

CHAPTER XVII

A FORECASTER OF HUMAN PROBABILITIES

I was about to turn in the direction of Walford, but then into my
trouble-tossed mind there came the recollection that I had intended,
no matter what happened, to call on the Larramies before I went home.
I owed it to them, and at this moment their house seemed like a port
of refuge.

The Larramies received me with wide-opened eyes and outstretched
hands. They were amazed to see me before the end of my vacation, for
no member of that family had ever come back from a vacation before it
was over; but they showed that they were delighted to have me with
them, be it sooner or later than they had expected, and I had not been
in the house ten minutes before I received three separate invitations
to make that house my home until school began again.

The house was even livelier than when I left it. There was a married
couple visiting there, enthusiastic devotees of golf; one of Mr.
Walter's college friends was with him; and, to my surprise, Miss Amy
Willoughby was there again.

Genevieve received me with the greatest