"For love’s sake!" gasped Miss Heppy at the head of the stairs. The lantern in her brother’s hand broadly illumined the two young people. Tobias himself was enormously amused. "Don’t look as though you hated each other none to speak of," was his tactless comment. "Tobias!" shrieked Miss Heppy. Lorna struggled out of Ralph’s arms in a flame of rage. "How dare you, Ralph Endicott?" she cried. "I thought you were at least a gentleman. You go right away from here—now—this minute! I’ll never speak to you again!" "Why, I—I——" Ralph was too startled for the moment to be angry. The girl ran in her bare feet to the comfort of Miss Heppy’s ample person. "Take me somewhere! Take me to your room, Miss Heppy. I never want to see him again. How dared he?" "Oh, sugar!" murmured the perfectly amazed lightkeeper. But the fires of rage began to glow within Ralph Endicott’s bosom now, blown by the blast of Lorna’s ingratitude. His face blazed. "What do you mean?" he demanded. "I did not come here because I wanted to. You yelled loud enough for help. I—I——" "That will do!" exclaimed Lorna, her head up, as regal as any angry little queen could be. "If you were a gentleman by nature you would have refused to stay here in the first place, when you knew the light was my only shelter." "Well, of all the——" "You can go on to Clinkerport. Telephone from the hotel to Aunt Ida and tell her where I am and whose care I am in. If the story that you and I remained here all night together is circulated about Harbor Bar, I’ll never forgive you, Ralph Endicott!" "Great Scott!" shouted the young man, coming out into the hall and closing the door of the bedroom. "You don’t suppose for a moment _I_ want such a story circulated among our friends, do you? No fear!" He started down the stairs, pulling his cap over his ears and buttoning his automobile coat up to his throat. "For love’s sake!" again gasped the troubled spinster, who still held the girl in her arms. "Hold on! Hold on!" exclaimed Tobias. "’Tain’t fit for to turn a dog out into this storm." "I don’t care!" cried the hysterical girl wildly. "He never should have let the car stall in that snowdrift. He should have gone on to Clinkerport alone instead of making a nuisance of himself around here." The lower door banged as punctuation to her speech. Tobias started to descend the stair. His sister motioned him commandingly toward the door of the best room. "You find some way to stopper that window, Tobias," she said, "and then go back to your lamp. You can’t do no good interfering in this." She led the sobbing girl into her own room and closed the door. The lightkeeper shook his head. "I give it as my opinion," he muttered, "that women folks is as hard to understand as the Chinee language. And they begin their finicking mighty airly."