"You provide me with the breath of life! Heavens, what a spring you have when you walk! And you 're as straight as a grenadier. I'm so sick of seeing slouching, die-away women! It's only you American women who know how to carry yourselves. Oh, Kate, if you can't answer me, don't, but let me see you once in a while. I'm a weak character, and I've got to enjoy your society a little longer." "You can enjoy as much of it as you please, only you mustn't be holding me up to some tremendous responsibility, and blaming me by and by for things I can't help." "I give you my word I'll not. Oh, Kate, is this a busy day with you? Can't you come out into the country somewhere? We could take the electric and in an hour we'd be out where we could see orchards in bloom." "I _could_ go," mused Kate. "I've a half-holiday coming to me, and really, if I were to take it to-day, no one would care." "The ayes have it! Let us go to the station-I'll buy plenty of tickets and we can get off at any place where the climate seems mild and the natives kind." * * * * * It proved to be a day of encounters. They had traveled well beyond the city, past the straggling suburbs and the comfortable, friendly old villages, some of which antedated the city of which they were now the fringe, and had reached the wider sweeps of the prairie, with the fine country homes of those who sought privacy. At length they came to a junction of the road. "All out here for--" They could not catch the name. "Isn't that where we're going?" laughed Kate. "Of course it is," Ray responded. They hastened out and looked about them for the train they had supposed would be in waiting. It was not yet in, however, but was showing its dark nose a mile or two down the track. "I must see about our tickets," said Ray. "Perhaps we'll have to buy others." Kate had been standing with her back to the ticket station window, but now she turned, and through the ticker-seller's window envisaged the pale, bitterly sullen face of Lena Vroom. It looked sunken and curiously alien, as if its possessor felt herself unfriended of all the world. "Lena!" cried Kate, too startled to use tact or to wait for Lena to give the first sign of recognition. Lena nodded coolly. "Oh, is this where you are?" cried Kate. "We've looked everywhere for you." "If I'd wanted to be found, I could have been, you know." The tone was muffled and pitifully insolent. "You are living out here?" "I live a few miles from here." "And you like the work? Is it--is it well with you, Lena?" "It will never be well with me, and you know it. I broke down, that's all. I can't stand anything now that takes thought. This just suits me--a little mechanical work like this. I'm not fit to talk, Kate. You'll have to excuse me. It upsets me. I'm ordered to keep very quiet. If I get upset, I'll not be fit even for this."