nce in Indianapolis he had felt the girl slipping away from him,
and this new departure in the matter of dress seemed to be a further
departure in the matter of Rita. In that conclusion he was wrong. The
girl had been growing nearer to him day by day. Her heart belonged to
him more entirely than it had even on the banks of Blue, and she longed
for the sycamore divan and the royal canopy of elm. Still, she loved her
pretty gowns.

"I am almost afraid of you," said Dic, when he had closed the gate and
was taking his place beside her for the walk.

"Why?" asked Rita, delightedly. Her heart was full of the spring and
Dic; what more could she desire?

"Your gown, your bonnet, your dainty shoes, your gloves, your beauty,
all frighten me," said Dic. "I can't believe they belong to me. I can't
realize they are mine."

"But they are," she said, flashing up to him a laughing glance from her
eyes. "My new gown should not frighten you."

"But it does," he returned, "and you, too."

"I am glad if I frighten you," she answered, while lacing her gloves. "I
have been afraid of you long enough. It is your turn now."

"You have been afraid of me?" asked Dic in surprise.

"Yes," she returned quite seriously. "I have always been slightly afraid
of you, and I hope I always shall be. The night of Scott's social I was
simply frightened to death, and before that night for a long, long time
I was in constant fear of you. I was afraid you would speak of--you
know--and I was afraid you would not. I did not know what terrible
catastrophe would happen if you did speak, and I did not know what would
happen to me if you did not. So you see I have always been afraid of
you," she said laughingly.

"Why, Rita, I would not harm a hair of your head."

"Of course not. I did not fear you in that way. You are so strong and
big and masterful; that is what frightens me. Perhaps I enjoy fearing
you just a bit."

"But you are so much grander than I," returned Dic, "that you seem to be
farther from me than ever before."

"Farther?" she asked in surprise.

"Yes, you seem to be drifting from me ever since you came to
Indianapolis," he returned.

"Ah, Dic, I have been feeling just the reverse," and her eyes opened
wide as she looked into his without faltering. There was not a thought
in all their gentle depths she would not gladly have him know. A short
silence ensued, during which she was thinking rapidly, and her thoughts
produced these remarkabl