She was near the Plaza, when a hail behind her fell on her ear, and turning, she saw Barron close on her heels, his hands also full of small packages. He had been at the mines for two weeks, and she could but notice the unaffected gladness of his greeting. She felt glad, too, a circumstance of which, for some occult reason, she was ashamed, and the shame and the gladness combined lent a reserved and yet conscious quality to her smile and kindled a charming embarrassment in her eye. They stood by the curb, he looking at her with glances of naïve admiration, while she looked down at her parcels. Passers-by noticed them, setting them down, she in her humble dress, he in his unmetropolitan roughness of aspect, as a couple from the country, a rancher or miner and his handsome sweetheart. He took her parcels away from her, and they started forward toward the Plaza. “Do you hear me panting?” he said, laying his free hand on his chest. “No, why should you pant?” “Because I’ve been running all down Kearney Street for blocks after you. I never knew any one to walk as fast in my life. I thought even if I didn’t catch you you’d hear me panting behind you and think it was some new kind of fire-engine and turn round and look. But you never wavered--simply went on like a racer headed for the goal. Did you walk so fast because you knew I was behind you?” She looked at him quickly with a side glance of protest and met his eyes full of quizzical humor and yet with a gleam of something eager and earnest in them. “I like to walk fast in this cold air. It makes me feel so alive. For a long time I’ve felt as though I were half dead, and you don’t know how exhilarating it is to feel life come creeping back. It’s like being able to breathe freely after you’ve been almost suffocated. But where did you see me on Kearney Street?” “I was in a place buying things for the boys. I was looking at a drum for Benito, and I just happened to glance up, and there you were passing. I dropped the drum and ran.” “A _drum_ for Benito! Oh, Mr. Barron, don’t get Benito a drum!” He could not control his laughter at the sight of her expression of horrified protest. He laughed so loudly that people looked at him. She smiled herself, not quite knowing why, and insensibly, both feeling curiously light-hearted, they drew closer together. “What can I get?” he said. “I looked at knives and guns, and I knew that they wouldn’t do. Benito would certainly kill Miguel and probably grandma. I thought of a bat and ball, and then I knew he’d break all the windows. The man in the store wanted me to buy a bow and arrow, but I saw him taking his revenge on the crab lady. Benito’s a serious problem any way you take him.”