"I know where we are now," Hubert said, while he looked about him in the growing light. "The good road is just ahead. It's as well 'tis, Ted, for you'll have to ride like the dickens, to keep from taking cold." "It's a warm night," she answered as blithely as she had spoken to her father, that morning; "and I never take cold. Come on, then. It's only six miles more, and I'm ready to spin." As they turned in at the gate, the hands of the town clock marked ten minutes after ten, and Theodora's spirits fell slightly. They found the doctor and his wife playing cribbage. The doctor looked up with the content born of that unwonted luxury, an evening quite to himself. "Home so early?" he said, with a smile. "Have you had a good time? I've really envied you, enjoying all this superb moonlight, when we old folks had to stay indoors." CHAPTER SEVENTEEN "Come and ride with me this morning, Ted." "Can't." "Why not?" "I'm busy." "That's what you said, last Saturday, and week before. It's a fine morning, and I do wish you'd come. I've a headache, and I want to ride it off, if I can." Billy took off his cap, and brushed away his hair, with a little weary gesture which went to Theodora's heart. She was not discerning enough to discover that Billy's headache had developed under the inspiration of the moment, so sure was he that this was the most certain method of bringing his friend to do his will. "I'm so sorry, Billy," she said gently. "I do want to go; but I must go somewhere else this morning." "Let me go, too," he suggested. "I'd as soon ride one way as another." "Oh, no," she said hastily; "and I'm not ready yet. Does your head ache very badly, Billy?" "Very," answered the deceiver, assuming the look of a martyr. "And I didn't sleep any, last night." "What a shame! Aren't you well?" Theodora sat down on the steps and gazed so steadily at him that he blushed. "I believe you're shamming, Billy," she said sternly. "You've no more headache than Mulvaney." He laughed, with conscious pleasure in his guilt. "Well, what if I haven't? I shall have, some day. Really, Ted, what is the reason you won't ride with me?" "I can't, Billy; that's all there is about it. I've something else I must do." "You might tell me what it is," he observed persuasively. "I might, but I won't." Then her heart smote her at sight of his disappointed face, as he turned away. "Some day, Billy," she called after him. He nodded, as he pulled off his cap. Then he left her.