't s'pose there was anybody here but Mr. Crompton's friend. Who
is she? Where does she want to go? There ain't no conveyance here for
nowhere at this hour," he said, throwing the light of his lantern fully
on Eloise, whose face grew, if possible, a shade paler, and whose voice
shook as she replied, "I want to go to Mrs. Biggs's. I am to board with
her. I am the new school teacher, Miss Smith. Can I walk there when the
storm is over? How far is it?"

"Great guns!" Jack said under his breath, holding the whole of his
umbrella now over the girl instead of half, while the agent replied,
"Walk to Widder Biggs's! I'd say not. It's two good miles from here.
You'll have to sit in the depot till it stops rainin' a little, and I'll
find you a place till mornin'. Tim Biggs was here when the train or'to
of come, and said he was expectin' a schoolmarm. Be you her?"

"Yes, oh, yes; thank you. Let me get into the station as soon as I can.
My umbrella is gone, and I am so cold and wet," Eloise said, with
catches in her breath between the words.

"Hold on a minit," the agent continued. "The Crompton carriage goes
within quarter of a mile of the Widder Biggs's. I guess the young man
will take you. I will ask him."

"No, let me. I'm sure he will," Jack interrupted him, and thrusting his
umbrella into Eloise's hand, he stumbled through the darkness to the
corner where he heard Howard calling to him, "Jack, Jack, where in
thunder are you?"

"Here," Jack replied, making for the voice, and saying to Howard when he
reached him, "Howard, that's Eloise Smith, the girl I wrote you
about,--the school teacher. She hasn't a dry rag on her. Her umbrella is
lost. She wants to go to Widow Biggs's. The agent says it is not far
from the Crompton Place. Can't we take her? Of course we can. I'll go
for her."

He hurried off as well as he could, leaving Howard in no very amiable
frame of mind. He had laughed at Jack's rhapsodies over Eloise Smith,
and said to himself, "His interest in her will never be very lasting, no
matter how pretty she is. Jack Harcourt and a basket-boarder! Ha, ha!
Rich. Still, I'd like to see her."

After that he had nearly forgotten her in his absorbing efforts to keep
the right side of his uncle, and entertain Amy. And now she was here,
and Jack was proposing to have him take her to Widow Biggs's, which was
a quarter of a mile beyond the park gates, Sam said, when consulted as
to the widow's whereabouts. There was no help f