"Well?" she said, with her sweet smile. "What--is it?" "What is what?" he answered. "What is it that you want to know?" she asked. "Nothing." "What is it then I can tell you?" "Whatever you wish to tell me." "What would you soonest know? Ask--I am willing that you should. I shall be glad to answer--you." "I was wondering, Stephanie," he said, after a pause. "I was wondering--why you did it?" For a little time she did not reply. "Why I--went off with Garret Amherst, you mean?" she said low. "Good Lord, no!" he exclaimed. "That is your own affair. I meant why you came to this place of all others in town, this afternoon." "A fit of bravado," she answered. "I had already done so much that a trifle more didn't matter. Moreover, I was curious to see what"--she made a slight motion of her hand toward the crowd on the piazza--"they would do. I saw!" she added with a bit of a laugh. "Was it wise to try them all together?" he asked. "Wouldn't it have been better to let them make up their minds gradually rather than to force them to a decision in a moment?" "Of course--I know it, but I've been so much a fool lately that I'm reckless--I reckon it is in the blood. My father lost his life climbing mountains, you know. Mine takes a different form, that's all--I run to the unconventional. Run is a good word, isn't it?" she smiled. "Yes--particularly the run _back_," said Pendleton. "You think so?" she demanded. "I'm sure of it, Stephanie--perfectly sure of it." "What did I run back to?" she asked. "Lorraine, if you want him!" "I don't know that I want him," she shrugged--"and I don't think he'll have me. Harry Lorraine is a weak, vacillating fool--that's why I left him. If he had the strength of a man--just an ordinary man--he could have saved me from Amherst. He would have taken me from him, at any rate; he could have found us at any time. My mother knew where I was--after the first two weeks." "I thought as much," Pendleton commented. "He wrote me three letters--at intervals. In the first, he was coming over to kill Amherst on sight." "He had the right idea."