ompanion with a cheerful grin. "She said Dick Melody'd ought to be set
up on a pedestal somewheres to be admired. I don't know as bein'
good-lookin' gets a man anywhere. What good did those eyes ever do him!"

Geraldine sank closer to her window. The despair in those eyes, as her
father begged for her forgiveness, rose before her. Never had she felt
so utterly alone; so utterly friendless.

"Yes, I say leave the looks to the womenfolks," pursued Rufus Carder,
feasting his gaze on the girl's profile. "When Juliet set out to get
Dick, I warned her, but it wasn't any use. She had to have him, and she
knew pretty well how to look out for herself. I guess she never lost
anything by the deal."

"Would you mind not talking about them?" said Geraldine stiffly.

"Please yourself and you'll please me as to what we talk about,"
returned Rufus cheerfully. "Shouldn't wonder if you were pretty sore at
Juliet. Look out for number one was her motto all right." A glance at
the shrinking girl showed the host that her eyes were closed. "Tired,
ain't you?" he added.

"Dead tired," she answered. And as she continued to keep her eyes closed
he contented himself by watching the lashes resting on her pale cheeks.

"Ketch a little nap if you can, that's right," he said. She kept
silence.

She did not know how long the blessed relief from his voice had lasted
when he announced their arrival.

"Be it ever so humble," he remarked, "There's no place like home."

To have him get out of the seat and leave her free of the touch of his
garments was a blessing, and she rose to follow mechanically. The
eternal hope that dies so hard in the human breast was suggesting that
his mother might be not impossible; and at any rate a farm was wide. She
would never be imprisoned in a car seat with him again.

"There now, my lady," he said triumphantly when they were on the
platform. "I suppose you thought you were comin' to Rubeville. That
don't look so hay-seedy? Eh?"

He pointed to a dusty automobile whose driver, a boy of eighteen or
twenty, with a torn hat, eyed her with dull curiosity.

"I suppose you expected a one-hoss shay. No, indeedy. You've come to all
the comforts of home, little girl." His airy geniality of tone changed.
"What you starin' at, you coot? Come along here, Pete."

The boy moved the car toward the spot where they waited with their bags.

Rufus put these in at the front and himself entered the tonneau with his
guest. His con