ts of rich people
there?--Of course, I do not really care any more about the rich people
than the others, but it always makes a city seem grand to have a lot of
rich citizens, I think. Don't you?"

So he told her about Des Moines, and Prudence lay with her eyes
half-closed, listening, and wondering why there was more music in his
voice than in most voices. Her ankle did not hurt very badly. She did
not mind it at all. In fact, she never gave it a thought. From beneath
her lids, she kept her eyes fastened on Jerrold Harmer's long brown
hands, clasped loosely about his knees. And whenever she could, she
looked up into his face. And always there was that curious catching in
her breath, and she looked away again quickly, feeling that to look too
long was dangerous.

"I have talked my share now," he was saying, "tell me all about yourself,
and the parsonage, and your family. And who is Fairy? And do you attend
the college at Mount Mark? You look like a college girl."

"Oh, I am not," said Prudence, reluctant to make the admission for the
first time in her life. "I am too stupid to be a college girl. Our
mother is not living, and I left high school five years ago and have been
keeping house for my father and sisters since then. I am twenty years
old. How old are you?"

"I am twenty-seven," and he smiled.

"Jerrold Harmer," she said slowly and very musically. "It is such a nice
name. Do your friends call you Jerry?"

"The boys at school called me Roldie, and sometimes Hammie. But my
mother always called me Jerry. She isn't living now, either. You call
me Jerry, will you?"

"Yes, I will, but it won't be proper. But that never makes any
difference to me,--except when it might shock the members! You want me
to call you Jerry, don't you?"

"Yes, I do. And when we are better acquainted, will you let me call you
Prudence?"

"Call me that now.--I can't be too particular, you see, when I am lying
on your coat and pillowed with your belongings. You might get cross, and
take them away from me.--Did you go to college?"

"Yes, to Harvard, but I was not much of a student. Then I knocked around
a while, looking at the world, and two years ago I went home to Des
Moines. I have been there ever since except for little runs once in a
while."

Prudence sighed. "To Harvard!--I am sorry now that I did not go to
college myself."

"Why? There doesn't seem to be anything lacking about you. What do you
care