she was very honest.

"I suppose so," she said.

"Well," said he.

"In my mind," she said, "I have never been able to give you the same
answer twice...."

"A decision is expected from us," said he. "People are growing tired of
our long backing and filling."

"People! Do they matter?"

"They matter a great deal. And you know it."

"Yes. I suppose they do. Let me off for now, Bob. People are looking at
us...."

"I want an answer."

But she would not be coerced.

"You shall have one, but not now. I'm not sure what it will be."

"If you can't be sure now, can you ever be sure?"

"Yes. Give me two weeks. I shall think about nothing else."

"Thank you," he said. "Two weeks.... That will be full moon.... I shall
ask all Aiken to a picnic in the woods, weather permitting ... and--and
if your answer is to be my happiness, why, you shall come up to me, and
say, 'Bob--drive me home, will you?'"

"And if it's the other answer, Bob?"

He smiled in his usual bantering way.

"If it's the other, Phyllis--why--you--you can walk home."

She laughed joyously, and he laughed, just as if nothing but what was
light and amusing was in question between them.

Along the Whiskey Road nearly the whole floating population of Aiken
moved on horseback or on wheels. Every fourth or fifth runabout carried
a lantern; but the presence in the long, wide-gapped procession of
other vehicles or equestrians was denoted only by the sounds of voices.
Half a dozen family squabbles, half a dozen flirtations (which would
result in family squabbles), and half a dozen genuine romances were
moving through the sweet-smelling dark to Mr. Bob Blagdon's picnic in
Red Oak Hollow. Only three of the guests knew where Red Oak Hollow was,
and two of these were sure that they could only find it by daylight; but
the third, a noted hunter and pigeon shot, rode at the head of the
procession, and pretended (he was forty-five with the heart of a child)
that he was Buffalo Bill leading a lost wagon-train to water. And though
nobody could see him for the darkness, he played his part with minute
attention to detail, listening, pulling up short, scowling to right and
left, wetting a finger and holding it up to see from which direction the
air was moving. He was so intent upon bringing his convoy safely through
a hostile country that the sounds of laughter or of people in one
runabout calling gayly to people in another were a genuine annoyance to
him.

Mr.