re you your pleasure and surprise is
as nothing to mine. You are not only a fellow-countryman but a friend in
need as well."

"My dear sir, I know what it is to run out of spirit. And I suppose
there is no place in the whole of France where you might go farther
without finding any than this very district. You are on pleasure bent, I
presume?"

Merriman shook his head.

"Unfortunately, no," he replied. "I'm travelling for my firm, Edwards &
Merriman, Wine Merchants of London. I'm Merriman, Seymour Merriman, and
I'm going round the exporters with whom we deal."

"A pleasant way to do it, Mr. Merriman. My name is Coburn. You see I am
trying to change the face of the country here?"

"Yes, Miss"--Merriman hesitated for a moment and looked at the
girl--"Miss Coburn told me what you were doing. A splendid notion, I
think."

"Yes, I think we are going to make it pay very well. I suppose you're
not making a long stay?"

"Two days in Bordeaux, sir, then I'm off east to Avignon."

"Do you know, I rather envy you. One gets tired of these tree trunks and
the noise of the saws. Ah, there is your petrol." A workman had appeared
with a red can of Shell. "Well, Mr. Merriman, a pleasant journey to you.
You will excuse my not going farther with you, but I am really supposed
to be busy." He turned to his daughter with a smile. "You, Madeleine,
can see Mr. Merriman to the road?"

He shook hands, declined Merriman's request to be allowed to pay for
the petrol and, cutting short the other's thanks with a wave of his arm,
turned back to the shed.

The two young people strolled slowly back across the clearing, the girl
evidently disposed to make the most of the unwonted companionship, and
Merriman no less ready to prolong so delightful an interview. But in
spite of the pleasure of their conversation, he could not banish from
his mind the little incident which had taken place, and he determined to
ask a discreet question or two about it.

"I say," he said, during a pause in their talk, "I'm afraid I upset your
lorry man somehow. Did you notice the way he looked at me?"

The girl's manner, which up to this had been easy and careless, changed
suddenly, becoming constrained and a trifle self-conscious. But she
answered readily enough.

"Yes, I saw it. But you must not mind Henri. He was badly shell-shocked,
you know, and he has never been the same since."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Merriman apologized, wondering if the man could be a
rela