It was with incredulity that he found himself again in that cheerful, cherished, homely place. But there he was when he came out of his abstraction: there in those familiar surroundings, with Tracey's round red face beaming at him over the cigar-stand like a lively counterfeit of the round red moon he had watched lift up into the skies, back there in the still countryside, just as he paused to turn back to town. He recollected his faculties and resumed command of himself sufficiently to acknowledge Tracey's greeting with a moody word. "All right, Tracey," he said abruptly. "You may go, now. I'll shut up the store." He looked at his watch, and was surprised to discover that it was no later than half-past eight. He seemed to have lived a lifetime in the last few hours. "Thank you, sir," said Tracey with a gush of gratitude. "I'll be glad to get off. Angle's waiting." "Angle----?" "Good-evening, Mr. Duncan." "Oh, Miss Tuthill!" Nat discovered that little rogue, all smiles and dimples and blushes, not distant from his elbow. "I didn't see you--I was thinking." "Guess we know what you was thinkin' about," observed Tracey, bringing his hat round the counter. "Everybody in town's talkin' about it." "About what?" "Ah, you know about what, and we're mighty glad of it, and we want to congratulate you, don't we, Angie." "Oh, yes, indeed, Mr. Duncan. It's just too sweet for anything." "O Lord!" groaned Nat. "I'm awful glad you done it when you did," pursued Tracey, oblivious to Nat in his own ecstatic temper. "I guess I wouldn't never 've got up the spunk to--to tell Angie what I did to-night, 'f it hadn't been we was talkin' 'bout your engagement to Josie. Then, somehow, it just seemed to bust right out of me, like I couldn't hold it no longer. Didn't it, Angie?" "Oh, Tracey, how can you talk so!" "Then you're engaged, too?" Nat inquired, rousing himself a little and smiling feebly upon them. "Yes, sir." "I'm glad to hear it. It's great news. Now run along, both of you, and don't forget you'll never be so happy again." With what he thought an expiring flash of humour he raised his hands above their heads. "Bless you, my children!" he said solemnly. "Now, for Heaven's sake, beat it!" Alone he went to the prescription desk and opening one of the drawers took out the firm's books. After that for some fifteen minutes there was nothing to be heard in the store save Nat's breathing and the scratching of his pen as he figured out a trial balance.... Brisk footfalls disturbed him. He sighed and moved out into the store to find Kellogg there, suave and easy as always, yet with that in his manner, perceptible perhaps only to a friend of long-standing like Nat, to betray a mind far from complacent. "Oh, you're here!" he cried, with a distinct start of relief. "I've been looking all over for you."