o himself as he
surveyed his pants, and boots, and hat, and thought what a contrast he
should present to the elegant Tom and his other friends at the station.
'But Jerrie won't care a bit; she understands, or will, when she sees
her new room. How pretty it is!' he added, as he stopped to look in and
admire it.

A blind had swung open, letting in a flood of hot sunshine and as it was
desirable to keep the room as cool as possible, Harold went in to close
the shutter. But something was the matter with both fastening and hinge,
and he was fixing it when Maude drove up, telling him the train was
late.

'That's lucky,' he said, 'for this blind is all out of gear;' and it
took so much time to fix and rehang it that the whistle was heard among
the hills a mile away, just as he entered the victoria with Maude and
started for the station upon a run.

CHAPTER XXX.

THE WALK HOME.

All the way from the station to the gate Harold was trying to think of
something to say besides the merest commonplaces, and wondering at
Jerrie's silence. She had seemed glad to see him, he had seen that in
her eyes, and seen there something else which puzzled and troubled him,
and he was about to ask her what it was when she stopped so abruptly,
and said:

'Why didn't you come to Vassar? Tom Tracy said you were shingling a
roof, and Billy Peterkin said Maude was helping you.'

'Oh, that's it, is it?' Harold said, bursting into a laugh. 'That is why
you have been so stiff and distant, ever since we left the depot, that I
could not touch you with a ten-foot pole.'

'Well, I don't care,' Jerry replied, with a sob in her voice. 'I was so
disappointed, for I wanted you so badly. Everybody had some friend
there, but myself. You don't know how lonely I felt when I went on the
stage and knew there was no home face looking at me in all that crowd. I
think you might have come any way.'

'But, Jerrie,' Harold said, laying his hand upon her shoulder, as they
slowly walked on, 'wait a little before you condemn me utterly. I wanted
to come quite as much as you wanted to have me. I remembered what a help
it was to me when I was graduated to see your face in the crowd, and
know by its expression that you were satisfied.'

'I did not suppose you saw me,' Jerry exclaimed, her voice very
different in its tone from what it had been at first.

'Saw you!' and Harold's hand tightened its grasp on her shoulder. 'Saw
you! I scarcely saw any one else exc