an odd in itself, because I have always been the one to
carry my woes to her. It must have been between four and five, for I
had counted a clock striking four; and yet she was still dressed in her
party costume. Have you guessed what she had been doing? Mr. O'Mara,
she had been out looking for him! She had slipped out and been waiting
because she was sure Ragtime would bolt and--and come back home,
dragging him by a stirrup! Wasn't that a horrible thing to wait for,
alone in the dark?"

With a little shudder the girl put her hands over her eyes, as if to
shut out the picture.

"She wasn't hysterical, either. She was--just--ice! And wringing wet
and blue with cold. Cool, proud, intolerant Miriam Burrell--and I'd
never dreamed of her caring for anybody, until that minute. I sent her
to bed and I think I hated Garry Devereau for an hour or two. Why, Mr.
O'Mara, I'd never believed that a girl could care that much for any
man!"

He stopped toying with a handful of dry twigs and let them slip away
between his fingers. She saw his head come up; saw his eyes narrow.
Then her own body stiffened as she realized what she had said. And yet
it was, after all, only a part of something she had decided she must
make clear to him, ever since he had surprised her there at the road
edge; it was part of an explanation which, without quite knowing why,
she felt was due to him. But she had not meant to employ that abrupt
confession as a preface. That made it inconceivably harder, it seemed.
And he, silent at her feet, stared out at the blue rim of the hills and
gave her no assistance now--not so much as a smile. She sat a long
time, nursing one slim knee between her palms.

"Mr. O'Mara," she appealed to him at last, "how might one reopen a--a
rather difficult subject with--with a suddenly most difficult
conversationalist?"

Without turning his head he made answer:

"I think Fat Joe's method is as good as any," he suggested. "Joe says
the only way to reopen any argument is to take a running jump and land
all spraddled out, right in the middle of it. He insists that such
procedure leaves no doubt in the mind of anyone that the discussion is
about to be resumed."

She laughed a little.

"Then shall we consider that I've taken--the--the jump, and landed?"

Just when she was wishing most that she could see his face he swung
around toward her. Again his gravity was a totally gentle thing. It
made her remember the sel