ay,
and after its tardy arrival it was full of grief, despite her joy at
seeing Dic.

At two o'clock Williams left, and the remainder of the afternoon richly
compensated the girl for her earlier troubles. Tom went out, and about
four o'clock Mr. Bays went for a walk while Justice was sleeping
upstairs. During the father's absence, Dic and Rita had a delightful
half hour to themselves, during which her tongue made ample amends for
its recent silence, and talked such music to Dic as he had never before
heard. She had, during the past ten days, made memoranda of the subjects
upon which she wished to speak, fearing, with good reason, that she
would forget them all, in the whirl of her joy, if she trusted to
memory. So the memoranda were brought from a pocket, and the subjects
taken up in turn. To Dic that half hour was well worth the ride to
Indianapolis and home again. To her it was worth ten times ten days of
waiting, and the morning with its wretched dinner was forgotten.

Mrs. Margarita, stricken by Tom's words, had been thinking all the
afternoon of the note payable on demand, and had grown to fear the
consequences of her conduct at dinner-time. She had hardly grown out of
the feeling that Dic was a boy, but his prompt resentment of her cold
reception awakened her to the fact that he might soon become a dangerous
man. Rita's show of rebellion also had an ominous look. She was nearing
the dangerous age of eighteen and could soon marry whom she chose. Dic
might carry her off, despite the watchfulness of open-eyed Justice, and
cause trouble with the note her husband had so foolishly given. All
these considerations moved Margarita, the elder, to gentleness, and when
she came downstairs she said:--

"Dic, I am surprised and deeply hurt. We always treat you without
ceremony, as one of the family, and I didn't mean that I didn't want you
to stay for dinner. I did want you, and you must stay for supper."

Dic's first impulse was to refuse the invitation; but the pleading in
Rita's eyes was more than he could resist, and he remained.

How different was the supper from the dinner! Rita was as talkative as
one could ask a girl to be, and Mrs. Bays would have referred to the
relative virtues of hearing and seeing girls, had she not been in
temporary fear of the demand note. Tom was out for supper with Williams.
Mr. Bays told all he knew; and even the icy dragoness, thawed by the
genial warmth, unbent to as great a degree as t