A wanly pretty girl, with short yellow hair curled kinkily against her head under a sombrero hat, loitered toward him, close to the window; paused at his side, brushing his elbow; glanced furtively up under her hat brim; smiled mechanically, showing gold teeth; moved around him and lingered on the other side; spoke in a low tone; finally, with a glance toward the fat policeman who stood, in faded blue, out in the thick of things by the car tracks, drifted on and away. Henry had neither seen nor heard her. Brows knit, lips compressed, eyes nervously intent, he marched resolutely into Welding's. 'Look at some rings!' he said, to a distrait salesman. He indicated, sternly, a solitaire that looked, he thought, about like Martha's. 'How much is that?' 'That? Not a bad stone. Let me see... Oh, three hundred dollars.' Henry, huskily, in a dazed hush of the spirit, repeated the words:-- 'Three--hundred--dollars!' The salesman tapped with manicured fingers on the showcase. 'Have you--have you--have you... The salesman raised his eyebrows. '... any others?' 'Oh, yes, we have others.' He drew out a tray from the wall behind him. 'I can show fairly good stones as low as sixty or eighty dollars. Here's one that's really very good at a hundred.' There was a long silence. The glistening finger nails fell to tapping again. 'This one, you say is--one hundred?' 'One hundred.' Another silence. Then:-- 'Thank you. I--I was just sorta looking around.' The salesman began replacing the trays. Henry moved away; slowly, irresolutely, at first; then, as he passed out the door, with increasing speed. At the corner of Randolph he was racing along. He caught the two-fourteen for Sunbury by chasing it the length of the platform. Henry could do the hundred yards under twelve seconds at any time with all his clothes on. He could do it under eleven on a track. By a quarter to three he was walking swiftly, with dignity, up Simpson Street. He turned in at the doorway beside Hemple's meat-market and ran up the long stairway to the offices above. Humphrey strolled in from the composing room. 'Seen those people already, Hen?' 'I--you see--well, no. I'm going right back in. On the three-eight.' 'Going back? But----' 'It's this way, Hump. I--it'll seem sorta sudden, I know--you see, I want to get an engagement ring. There's one that would do all right, I think, for--well, a hundred dollars--and I was wondering....' Humphrey stared at him; grinned. 'So you've gone and done it! You don't say! You are a bit rapid, Henry. The lady must have been on the train.' 'No--not quite--you see...' 'Got to be done right now, eh? All in a rush?' 'Well, Hump... 'Wait a minute! Let me collect my scattered faculties. If you've got to this point it's no good trying to reason----' 'But, Hump, I'll be reasonable----'