n quit when they
are whipped once, but don't some of them refuse to recognize that
they've ever been whipped at all, Cal? And then, she told me that she
had asked him to her party, Friday night. If he comes I think I'll be
better able to tell just what----"

"He won't!" cut in Caleb flatly, and when she taxed him for it he
proceeded to elaborate at considerable length the reason for his
certainty. His argument was rather tight and so, just because of that,
woman-fashion she believed the contrary.

All day Friday she watched the hills' road. Not until the orchestra in
the lodge beyond the hedge had begun tunelessly to strum their
instruments, to insure their later tunefulness, did she reluctantly
abandon her position at the window. But then, from his chair at the
fire, Caleb noticed how wistfully disappointed her face was.

It turned much colder with nightfall; a wind sharp with the tang of
autumn was blowing in off the river when Barbara, muffled from throat
to ankle in a sapphire fur-edged wrap, slipped in at the door, having
stolen away ostensibly to display to them her costume. It was after
the hour of ten, but the girl lingered a little after she had executed
that mission; she stopped again in the door, indecisively worrying her
lip with small teeth, when she finally turned to depart.

"We are very sorry that Mr. O'Mara could not come," she hesitated. "I
had promised both Garry and Archie Wickersham that he would be down."

The older woman nodded and accepted the statement for what it was--a
question which the girl's eyes failed to conceal.

"We haven't heard from him since he went back into camp," she answered.
"He, no doubt, has been unable to get away."

Barbara turned without replying and passed out, less airily than she
had entered. But Miss Sarah's eyes were no longer disappointed as she
again took her place at a window. And a second later, when she had
drawn back suddenly into the room with a muffled exclamation, her
brother was astonished at her beaming face. A moment earlier he would
have sworn that it was only wistful, but before she went upstairs,
exclaiming still further at the lateness of the hour, it began to look
more than a little like veritable triumph to him.

Barbara Allison recrossed the lawn very slowly that night; she retraced
her steps with head bent, the fall of her slippered feet muffled by the
carpet of thick, unfrosted grass. Vaguely troubled, vaguely disturbed
at herse