"Come out on the rear platform," said Phyllis, joining Joy as she stared after the tall figure and the little one passing out of the car. "It's the only cool spot. I suppose in the smoking car, where Allan is, the windows are open, but this place is too hot to live in. I wonder if there's any blue-law that forbids opening chair-car windows. I always forget to tell Allan to get day-coach tickets on this line, and it never occurs to him to do anything but perish in the parlor-cars, having been brought up in the lap of luxury. So we suffer on." Phyllis laughed as she led the way out to the little platform, and held to the rail with one hand, letting the wind sweep past her. She looked like anything but suffering. "Oh, isn't it one of the loveliest days that ever was!" she breathed, turning to Joy. "It's one of the loveliest times that ever was," Joy responded impulsively. "Oh, Phyllis, I'm so glad I met you!" "Glad you met John, dear child," Phyllis corrected. "So am I. Glad _I_ met _you_, I mean, and particularly glad John did. We were all _so_ afraid he was going to marry Gail Maddox. I think he was getting a little worried over it himself!" Joy looked up, startled. "You mean--he wasn't really thinking of marrying some one else?" Phyllis anchored her hat more securely, and smiled down out of the white cloud her veil made around the rose and blue and gold of her. "He seems principally to have been thinking, in his monumental silence, of marrying you. But Gail was certainly 'spoken of for the position.'" "Gail!" Joy murmured worriedly. She had never thought of this complication. Phyllis nodded. "She's as nice as possible, but everybody could see how fearfully they wouldn't fit--everybody, that is, but the parties concerned. Gail's one of those people who are always dashing about aimlessly, doing something because she didn't do it yesterday. And John's the kind of a man--well, you know the kind he is: dependable, authoritative, angel-kind, and deadly clever. He's not a _bit_ like Allan," said Allan's wife, as if Allan were the standard pattern for men. "If I didn't adore Allan too much to be so mean, I could fool him a dozen times a day, and so could any woman. If it meant John's life I don't believe I could hoodwink him, any more than I could another girl. I suppose it comes from diagnosing cases." "We're almost at Wallraven, Phyllis," Allan spoke from behind them before Joy could answer. "Better come in and get your caravan in order." "Coming," said Phyllis simply; and went in to assort her babies. But Joy had seen the look that passed between the husband and wife, and it made her a little lonely for the moment. You could see that they belonged to each other, and how glad they were of it. And Joy--well, she was only somebody's pretend-sweetheart. Maybe nobody would ever look at her that way...