even as glad as I was that time you happened along when the Indian
chased me." She ignored his question as entirely as if he had not asked
it.

He asked it again when they were presently seated on a homeward bound
car. "What I want to know is, what made you wander from your own
fireside?"

Mary felt her cheeks burn. She was prepared to make a full confession to
the girls, but not for worlds would she make it to him. Quickly turning
her back on him as if to look at something that had attracted her
attention in the street, she groped frantically around in her mind for
an answer. He leaned forward, peering around till he could see her face,
and repeated the question.

"Oh," she answered indifferently, bending slightly to examine the toe of
her shoe with a little frown, as if it interested her more than the
question. "I just went out into the wide world to seek my fortune. You
know I never had a chance before."

"And did you find it?"

She laughed. "Well, some people might not think so, but I'm satisfied."

"Did you have any adventures?" he persisted.

"Yes, heaps and heaps, but I'm saving them to go in my memoirs, so you
needn't ask what they were."

"Lost on Broadway, or Arizona Mary's Mystery!" exclaimed Phil. "I shall
never rest easy until I unearth it."

"Then you'll have a long spell of uneasiness," was the grim reply.
"Horses couldn't drag it from me."

He had begun his questioning merely in a spirit of banter, but as she
stubbornly persisted in her refusals, he began to think that she really
had had some ridiculous adventure, and was determined to find out what
it was. So he set traps for her, and cross-questioned her, secretly
amused at the quick-witted way in which she continually baffled him.

"I see that you are sadly changed," he said finally, with a shake of the
head. "The little Mary I used to know would have given the whole thing
away by this time--would have blurted out the truth before she knew what
she was doing. She was too honest and straight-forward to evade a
question. But you've grown as worldly-wise as an old trout--won't bite
at any kind of bait. Never mind, though, I'll get you yet."

Thus put on her guard, Mary refused to tell even the girls what had
possessed her to take secret leave that morning, but as she passed Joyce
in the hall she whispered imploringly, "_Please_ don't ask me to tell
now. It isn't much, but I don't want to tell while he's in the house. He
has been teasing m