in Canada----"

"Good Lord! What was she doing there?"

"She was with another lady an' two gentlemen, an' I guess they come in
an ottermobile," Lou explained. "They was in one the next day,
anyway--the one that slammed into the egg-wagon."

She described in detail the two occurrences, and added miserably:

"I didn't mean to tell you, Jim, but as long as I'm not goin' on with
you I might as well. It was me that walked on your note-book back there
on Mrs. Bemis's porch. It had fallen open on the floor, an' when I
picked it up I couldn't help seein' the name that was written across the
page. It was your own business, of course, if you didn't want to give
your real name to anybody----"

"Listen, Lou." He had caught her other hand now and was holding them
both very tightly. "You _are_ going on with me! I can't explain now
about my name, but it doesn't matter; nothing matters except that you
are not going to be a quitter! You said that you would go on to New York
with me, and you're going to keep your word."

"I know better now," she replied quietly. "It's--it's been a wonderful
time, but I've got to work an' earn my keep an' try to learn as I go
along. It isn't just exactly breakin' my word; I didn't realize----"

"Realize what?" he demanded as she hesitated.

"I thought at first that you were kinder like me; it wasn't until I saw
that lady an' found you were a friend of hers, that I knew you were
different."

Her eyes were still downcast, and now a tinge of color mounted in her
cheeks. "I couldn't bear to have you take me to that other lady in the
city and be a-ashamed of me----"

"Ashamed of you!" he repeated, and something in his tone deepened the
color in her cheeks into a crimson tide. "Lou, look at me!"

Obediently she raised her eyes for an instant; then lowered them again
quickly, and after a pause she said in a very small voice:

"All right, Jim. I--I'll go. I guess I wouldn't just want to be a--a
quitter, after all."

It was mid-afternoon when they walked into Hunnikers and although they
had come ten long miles with only a stop for a picnic lunch between,
they bore no traces of fatigue. Rather they appeared to have been
treading on air, and although Jim had scrupulously avoided any further
reference to the future, there was a certain buoyant assurance about him
which indicated that in his own mind, at least, there remained no room
for doubt.

He needed all the assurance he could muster as, after en