He caught her slim young shoulders again in an iron grip. “Anybody else? Look at me. Look at me, I say! Is there anybody else?” She met his furious eyes with the sad candor of her own. “No one, Luke. You know that.” The black woman, her bright calico apron heaped high with the towels, passed them and went into the kitchen and she paused until the door had closed behind her. “I--I admire you, and look up to you, and glory in what you’ve done----” “But you don’t love me?” He was accusing, bitter. She felt guilty and forlorn and forsaken, and the tears came into her eyes. “Oh, Luke, I love what you _are_, and what you’re going to do and to be-- And I will marry you! I will! I want to, and Dad wanted me to, but if you’ll wait----” “If it’s the Tenafee woman--” he began, between set teeth. “Miss Ada? No, Luke, no! She has never said a word--we’ve never talked of you! It’s my own fault--my own wicked, ungrateful fault, but I’ll try, oh, I’ll _try_ to----” “Glen, dear! Oh, Glen!” fluted Miss Ada Tenafee’s gentle voice. She opened the door and looked out, her bright face clouding over at sight of Luke Manders. “Glen, honey, you have callers. Good afternoon, Luke!” He stared at her rudely, consideringly, without answering. “Oh, who is it, Miss Ada? Callers? For _me_? I was just coming in, and Luke is coming, too. Yes, Luke, _please_--” she laid her hand on his arm as he turned away. She could not let him go like that. “Come in, if only for a minute.” Looking at Miss Ada, reading her quite visible hope that he would refuse, he turned and followed Glen into the house, the teacher fluttering after. “It’s Nancy Carey, Glen, honey, and another old friend of yours! They’ve been here half an hour, and I gave them tea, and I was so anxious for fear you might be delayed at the mill----” Nancy Carey, lovely and languid in the doctor’s shabby armchair, held up a pale hand. “Hello, Glen! Here’s somebody who was crazy to see you!” She indicated the other girl who jumped to her feet and came laughing to meet the mistress of the house. “Well, look what spring has brought you!” Her voice was high and sharp, and her whole look was of sharpness--her very bright eyes with their darkened lashes, and brows plucked to a tiny black line, the almost mauve of her cheeks and her violent cerise mouth. “Know who I am?” Glen shook her head. “I’m afraid I don’t remember--” she began uncomfortably. “Don’t remember the brat from the Bella Vista who was the solitary guest at your valentine party? _I’m_ Janice Jennings. Greetings and hail! At the Bella Vista again, with my grandmother.” “Oh....” Glen was a little dazed. She presented Luke to the two girls, hastily, fearful lest he should stride out in the blackness of his mood and have still further reason for resentment toward her. Nancy Carey looked up at Luke Manders with her liquid hazel gaze and her soft little mouth smiling widely. “I’ve met you before,” she said calmly. He shook his head. “I don’t think so.”