"You do care, don't you, Elsie?" he said. Elsie turned and looked him full in the face, without a trace of affectation or fear. "Yes, Pip, I do," she answered. * * * * * It was long after six when they emerged from their retreat. The clouds were drifting up once more from the southwest, and everything promised a wet night. There was little wind, but already rain-drops were beginning to fall, unsteadily and fitfully. Presently this period of indecision ceased, and the rain came down in earnest. The two paused, and Pip surveyed Elsie's thin blouse disapprovingly. "Isn't there some place where we can shelter?" said Elsie. "There's a sort of tin place over there, but you would be soaked through before you got halfway to it. Besides, this rain means business; it'll go on all night now." "Come along then," said Elsie; "we must hurry. I can change when we get home." "Wait a minute," said Pip. He began to divest himself of his tweed jacket. "Put this on," he said. "Nonsense, Pip; you'll get soaked." Pip sighed, gently and patiently. "Put it on," he repeated, holding it open for her. Elsie glanced at him, and obeyed. "You're an obstinate old pig, sometimes, Pip," she remarked. And so they tramped home. They said little: there seemed to be nothing left in the world worth saying. Pip carried both sets of clubs under his left arm. Occasionally he sighed, long and gently, as one who has done his day's work and is at peace with all the world. Elsie marched beside him, with her arms buried to the elbows in the deep pockets of Pip's old jacket. (They were spacious pockets: one of them was sheltering two hands.) At intervals Elsie would look up at Pip, upon whose head and shoulders the rain was descending pitilessly. Once she said,-- "Pip, you're getting awfully wet." Pip looked down upon her for a moment. Then he looked up again, and shook his glistening head defiantly at the weeping heavens. "Who cares?" he roared. THE END The Riverside Press CAMBRIDGE. MASSACHUSETTS U. S. A. By Ian Hay PIP: A ROMANCE OF YOUTH. GETTING TOGETHER. THE FIRST HUNDRED THOUSAND. SCALLY: THE STORY OF A PERFECT GENTLEMAN. With Frontispiece. A KNIGHT ON WHEELS. HAPPY-GO-LUCKY. Illustrated by Charles E. Brock. A SAFETY MATCH. With frontispiece. A MAN'S MAN. With frontispiece. THE RIGHT STUFF. With frontispiece. HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY BOSTON AND NEW YORK Transcriber's Notes: Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_). Text in small caps are replaced by either Title case or ALL CAPS. Throughout this book are "misspelled" words in dialogues which are used to denote the sounds of words spoken by characters. Those "misspellings" are retained as in the original.