't."

"How do you do, Hettie?" said Harriet, as she came down the steps.
"Come into the parlor; you look cold."

The girl hesitated, but finally followed Harriet into the warm room.
They sat down before the fire, and there was an awkward silence for
several minutes, then the visitor suddenly pushed back her bonnet and
said, in a hard, desperate tone:

"Where is Toot Wambush, Harriet?"

Harriet looked at her in surprise for an instant, then she answered:

"Why, Hettie, how could I know? Nobody in Cartwright does now, I
reckon."

"I thought _you_ might." Both girls were silent for a moment, then the
visitor looked apprehensively over her shoulder at the door. "Is yore
ma coming in here?"

"No; she's busy in the kitchen; do you want to see her?"

"No." The girl spoke quickly and moved uneasily.

"You came to see me?"

"I come to see _some_body--oh, Harriet, I'm so miserable! You didn't
suspicion it, Harriet, but I'm afraid that man has made a plumb fool of
me. I haven't slept hardly one wink since they driv' 'im off. I--"
She put her hand to her eyes, and as she paused Harriet thought she was
crying, but a moment later, when she removed her hand, her eyes were
dry.

"Why did you come to--to see me, Hettie?" questioned Harriet.

"Because," was the slow-coming reply, "I thought maybe he had wrote
back to you."

"He has never written to me, Hettie--never a line."

The face of the girl brightened. "Then you ain't engaged to him, _are_
you, Harriet?"

"The idea! of course not."

"Oh, I'm mighty glad of that," exclaimed the visitor. "You see, I'm
such a fool about him I got jealous. Oh, Harriet, there ain't no use
in me tryin' to deceive myself; I know he would marry you at the drop
of a hat if you'd have him. I know that, and still I am crazy about
him. I ain't much to blame, Harriet, if I am foolish. He made me so,
an' 'most any pore, lonely girl like I am would care for a good-looking
man like he is. Oh, Harriet, it is awfully humiliating to have to
think it, but I believe the reason he treats me like he does is that I
showed him too plainly how much I loved him."

"I did not suspect till the other day," said Harriet, to avoid that
point, "that he was paying you any particular attention. Mother told
me he often drove you out home."

"Oh, la, that ain't a circumstance, Harriet! He used to come out home
mighty nigh every day or night. Pa an' ma think he is a regular
prince. You know he