the building, and the gallery trembled and
shook. Hilda caught her breath and stopped short.

"It's all right," said Bannon. "She's bound to move some."

"I know--" she laughed--"I wasn't expecting it--it startled me a little."

"Watch where you step." He took her arm and guided her slowly between the
heaps of rubbish.

At one of the windows she paused, and stood full in the rain, looking out
at the C. & S. C. tracks, with their twinkling red and green lights, all
blurred and seeming far off in the storm.

"Isn't this pretty wet?" he said, standing beside her.

"I don't care." She shook the folds of the rubber coat, and glanced down
at it. "I like it."

They looked out for a long time. Two millwrights came through the gallery,
and glanced at them, but they did not turn. She stepped forward and let
the rain beat on her face--he stood behind, looking at her. A light showed
far down the track, and they heard a faint whistle. "A train," he said;
and she nodded. The headlight grew, and the car lights appeared behind it,
and then the black outline of the engine. There was a rush and a roar, and
it passed under them.

"Doesn't it make you want to jump down?" she said softly, when the roar
had dwindled away.

He nodded with a half-smile. "Say," he said, a little later, "I don't know
about your writing--I don't believe we'd better--" he got the words out
more rapidly--"I'll tell you what you do--you come along with me and we
won't have to write."

"Come--where?"

"Up to the St. Lawrence. We can start on the third just the same."

She did not answer, and he stopped. Then, after a moment, she slowly
turned, and looked at him.

"Why--" she said--"I don't think I--"

"I've just been thinking about it. I guess I can't do anything else--I
mean I don't want to go anywhere alone. I guess that's pretty plain, isn't
it--what I mean?"

She leaned back against the wall and looked at him; it was as if she could
not take her eyes from his face.

"Perhaps I oughtn't to expect you to say anything now," he went on. "I
just thought if you felt anything like I did, you'd know pretty well, by
this time, whether it was yes or no."

She was still looking at him. He had said it all, and now he waited, his
fists knotted tightly, and a peculiar expression on his face, almost as if
he were smiling, but it came from a part of his nature that had never
before got to the surface. Finally she said:--

"I think we'd better go back."