Meanwhile, to him had come a reaction, and he was in a state of total collapse. Before she had finished receiving that message of only ten words, he had drawn himself dejectedly to his feet, and was looking for his hat. "I--I really--I must go, you know!" he faltered, blushing, as Nattie glanced up at him. "I--I fear I have intruded now--but I--I--" he stopped short, unable to find an ending to his sentence. "I'm always glad of company," Nattie said, but a little distantly, as she gave "O. K." on the wire. "I--I--really, you are very kind, you know," stammered Quimby. "I--I pass here on the way to dinner, you see--from the office, you know,"--he eked out his meagre income by writing in a lawyer's office--"where, 'pon my word, I ought to have been now. But it's--it's such a pleasure to see you--you know that--where can my hat be?" All this time he had been looking around for his hat, and now Nattie fished it out of the waste basket, into which he had unwittingly dropped it. Taking it with many apologies, he bowed himself confusedly and ungracefully out, and went away, wondering if he would ever be able to get himself up to such a pitch again, and resolving, if it proved possible, that it should not occur next time where there was one of those aggravating "sounders." "Now, I hope," thought Nattie, as she watched his retreating form, "that he is not going to make an idiot of himself! Not only because he is as good a fellow as he is a blundering one, and I wouldn't for the world hurt his feelings, but also because it would be dreadfully uncomfortable to have a rejected lover wandering around in the same house with one!" And Nattie, judging from his late conduct that the contingency referred to was likely to occur, resolved to be careful and not give him any opportunity to express his feelings, and furthermore, to kindly and cautiously teach him the meaning of the word Friendship, and particularly to define the broad distinction between that and Love. But circumstances are mulish things, and not to be governed at will, as Nattie was soon to discover. A few evenings after she called in to see Cyn, who happened to be out. But she was momentarily expected to return, as Mrs. Simonson said, so Nattie concluded to wait, and sat down at the piano. Not noticing she had left the door partly open, and never dreaming of approaching danger, she began to play, when suddenly, the hesitating voice of Quimby broke in upon the strains of the "First Kiss" waltz. "I--may I come in?" he asked. "I--I beg your pardon, but I knocked several times, you know, and you didn't hear at all." Nattie would gladly have refused the invitation he asked, but could think of no possible excuse for so doing, and was therefore compelled to say, "Yes--come in, I expect Cyn every moment."