She turned and caught up a long gauzy scarf of white silk with heavy fringed ends. She drew it lightly about her shoulders, veiling the delicate flesh from his sight. Then she flung one end of the scarf up over her head and face, and came toward him, her dark eyes showing mistily through the drapery, her lips smiling. "I'm not sure I don't like being guarded by my Turk, Red," she said. "And--about the frock." She came closer still, standing before him with downbent head, and speaking low, through the veiling, silken gauze. "Please don't mind about that. I'm going to leave it behind with Charlotte. I shall not care to wear it. When next May comes I hope I shall be wearing only simple frocks that--little hands can't spoil!" With a low ejaculation he tore off the scarf, seizing her head in both his hands and gently forcing her face upward that he might look into it. For a minute his eyes questioned hers, then-- "And you're happy about it?" he asked of her breathlessly. "I was never so happy in my life.... O Red--are you so glad as that?" "I think I've been waiting for that all my life," confessed Red Pepper Burns. THE END * * * * * OTHER BOOKS BY GRACE S. RICHMOND Red Pepper Burns Strawberry Acres Brotherly House A Court of Inquiry On Christmas Day in the Morning On Christmas Day in the Evening Round the Corner in Gay Street With Juliet in England The Indifference of Juliet The Second Violin