now where I was.
And I hurt myself, too; look at my hand!"

Dan looked and whistled.

"Skinned it properly, haven't you! Reminds me of the days of my youth.
Better sponge it clean with your handkerchief and some of that water.
And when you _did_ remember, the train had gone--."

"Yes--and not another until after ten, and not a halfpenny in my pocket
to buy a ticket, and no one but a callous wretch of a porter to consult.
Oh, Dan, I _was_ wretched--I'll bless you all my life for coming back
like this!"

"Rot!" said Dan briskly. "I was the only man. Couldn't do anything
else. I say, you know, it was your doing that I came to this blessed
old picnic at all, and you _have_ let me in for a day! Eleven to eleven
before we've done with it--twelve solid hours! I've had about as much
picnic as I want for the rest of my natural life."

"I'm sorry. I thought it would be so nice. I'm sorry I bothered you,
Dan." Darsie was tired and cold, in a condition of physical depression
which made her peculiarly sensitive to a slighting mood. She leaned her
head against the ugly wall, and shut her lids over her smarting eyes.
Her cheeks were white. Her lips quivered like a wearied child's, but
she made a charming picture all the same, her inherent picturesqueness
showing itself even in this moment of collapse.

Dan's gaze grew first sympathetic, then thoughtful, as he looked. In a
dim, abstract way he had been conscious that Darsie Garnett was what he
would have described as "a pretty kid," but the charm of her personality
had never appealed to him until this moment. Now, as he looked at the
dark eyelashes resting on the white cheek, the droop of the curved red
lips, the long, slim throat that seemed to-night almost too frail to
support the golden head, a feeling of tenderness stirred at his heart.
She was such a tiny scrap of a thing, and she had been tired and
frightened. What a brute he was to be so gruff and ungracious! "Buck
up, Darsie! Only ten minutes more to wait. I'll get you a cup of
coffee when we arrive. Your mother said we were to take a cab, so all
the worry's over and nothing but luxury ahead."

But Darsie, quick to note the soothing effect of her prostration,
refused to "buck up," and looked only more worn and pathetic than
before. The opportunity of lording it over Dan was too precious to be
neglected, so she blinked at him with languid eyes, and said faintly--

"I'll try, but I'm so _very_ tired!