"I like sitting here best," David confessed, but pulled himself up from the sofa, and in another minute Miss White, peering from an upper window, saw them walking off. "Made for each other!" said Cherry-pie, nibbling with happiness. They had almost reached Nannie's before David said that--that he was afraid he would have to go away a month before he had planned. When he was most in earnest, his usual brevity of speech fell into a curtness that might have seemed, to one who did not know him, indifference. Elizabeth did know him, but even to her the ensuing explanation, which did not explain, was, through his very anxiety not to offend her, provokingly laconic. "But you don't go on duty at the hospital until April," she said hotly. "Why do you leave Mercer the first of March?" "Materna wants time to get settled." "Mrs. Richie told me only yesterday that she was going to a hotel," Elizabeth said; "she said she wasn't going to look for a house until the fall, because she will be at the seashore this summer. It certainly doesn't take a month to find a hotel." "Well, the fact is, there are reasons why it isn't pleasant for Materna to be in Mercer just now." "Not pleasant to be in Mercer! What on earth do you mean?" "I'm afraid I can't tell you. It's her affair." "Oh, I didn't mean to intrude," Elizabeth said coldly. "Now, Elizabeth," he protested, "that isn't a nice thing to say." "Do you think _you've_ been saying nice things? I am perfectly certain that you would never hesitate to tell your mother any of my reasons for doing things!" "Elizabeth, I wouldn't leave Mercer a minute before the first of April, if I wasn't sure it was best for Materna. You know that." "Oh, go!" she said; "go, and have all the secrets you want. _I_ don't care." "Elizabeth, be reasonable; I--" But she had left him; they had reached the Maitland house, and, pushing aside his outstretched hand, she opened the iron gate herself, slammed it viciously, and ran up the curving steps to the door. As she waited for Harris to answer her ring, she looked back: "I think you are reasonable enough for both of us; please don't let me ever interfere with your plans!" She paused a minute in the hall, listening for a following step;--it did not come. "Well, if he's cross he can stay outside!" she told herself, and burst into the parlor. "Nannie!" she began,--"Oh, I beg your pardon!" she said. Blair was standing on the hearth-rug, talking vehemently to his sister; at the sound of the opening door he wheeled around and saw her, glowing, wounded, and amazingly handsome. "Elizabeth!" he said, staring at her. And he kept on staring while they shook hands. They were a handsome pair, the tall, dark, well-set-up man, and the girl almost as tall as he, with brown, gilt-flecked hair blowing about a vivid face which had the color, in the sharp February afternoon, of a blush-rose. "Where's David?" Nannie said. [Illustration: 'I THINK YOU ARE REASONABLE ENOUGH FOR BOTH OF US']