he sneered, raising the
bottle in the air. Standing jeering in the doorway, he bowed to Miss
Patty and Mr. Pierce, and put an olive into his mouth.

But instantly he made a terrible face, and clapped a hand just in front
of his left ear. He stood there a moment, his face distorted--then he
darted into the night, and I never saw him again.

"Mumps!" Doctor Barnes ejaculated, and stood staring after him from the
steps.

CHAPTER XXX

LET GOOD DIGESTION

There was no one left but Miss Patty. As she started out past him with
a crimson spot in each cheek Mr. Pierce put his hand on her arm. She
hesitated, and he closed the door on Doctor Barnes and put his back
against it. I had just time to slip back into the pantry and shut myself
in.

For a minute there wasn't a sound. Then--

"I told you I should come," Miss Patty said, in her haughtiest manner.
"You need not trouble to be disagreeable."

"Disagreeable!" he repeated. "I am abject!"

"I don't understand," she said. "But you needn't explain. It really does
not matter."

"It matters to me. I had to do this to-night. I promised you I would
make good, and if I had let this pass--Don't you see, I couldn't let it
go."

"You can let me go, now."

"Not until I have justified myself to you."

"I am not interested."

I heard him take a step or two toward her.

"I don't quite believe that," he said in a low tone. "You were
interested in what I said here this afternoon."

"I didn't hear it."

"None of it?"

"Not--not all."

"I spoke, you remember, about your sister, and about Dick--" he paused.
I could imagine her staring at him in her wide-eyed way.

"You never mentioned them!" she said scornfully and stopped. He laughed,
a low laugh, boyish and full of triumph.

"Ah!" he said. "So you DID hear! I'm going to say it again, anyhow. I
love you, Patty. I'm--I'm mad for you. I've loved you hopelessly for so
long that to-night, when there's a ray of hope, I'm--I'm hardly sane.
I--"

"Please!" she said.

"I love you so much that I waken at night just to say your name, over
and over, and when dawn comes through the windows--"

"You don't know what you are saying!" she said wildly. "I am--still--"

"I welcome the daylight," he went on, talking very fast, "because it
means another day when I can see you. If it sounds foolish, it's--it's
really lots worse than it sounds, Patty."

The door opened just then, and Doctor Barnes' voice spoke from the step