“I should think--” the girl began indignantly. She didn’t pause because she didn’t exactly know what it was she should think but because he was looking at her with a strange, half-hurt, half-angry look in his eyes. “Even you, Miss Lorraine,--pardon me, but aren’t you really an example? Wasn’t it only yesterday that you were saying that it wasn’t fair that this man who had loved music and planned higher things than his weakness could fulfill should be utterly forgotten because he ran amuck when his head was turned by grief? And to-day--apparently you can’t think badly enough of him!” The girl’s heart throbbed wildly. A flaming colour came to her cheeks giving her real beauty. “Well, you yourself!” she cried hotly. “You--you said nasty things yesterday about Dick Cartwright and now, to-day, one would think he was your best----” Suddenly she stopped. She was aware of a disturbance from without. Someone was calling her name and banging on the door of the cottage. Now she realised that it had been going on some time and she had been vaguely aware of it. She sprang to her feet, her face horror-stricken. Her mother had come for her! CHAPTER XI Anna reached home worn and fatigued on that Saturday afternoon only to learn that Alice Lorraine was still absent. Without the knowledge of anyone, she slipped out and returned to the lane. It was she whom Alice heard pounding on the kitchen door. Recognizing Anna, Alice clasped her in a hysterical embrace. “I thought it was--mother!” she sobbed. “Good heavens! is her mother such an ogre as all that!” Anna said to herself. Aloud she said lightly: “What, with my bobbed hair? I like that. No, Alice my child, your mother is waiting for you to join her at supper, and we must hike. Don’t cry any more and they won’t know. They’ll think it’s from running--for we’d better run.” Something in her brave, tired voice went to Alice’s heart. She kissed her warmly. “I’ll run, Anna dear, but you take your time,” she bade her. But Anna stood firm. And though they did not run, they walked fast and were not long in reaching the Hollow. Just before they came to Miss Penny’s, Alice spoke with effort. “Anna, I want awfully to get down to the cottage to-morrow. Do you suppose I can?” “It won’t be so easy, being Sunday. Could you possibly wait until Monday?” Anna asked in troubled tone. “O Anna, not possibly!” cried the other girl vehemently, remembering her parting with John Converse. For they had been interrupted in the midst of what was virtually a quarrel. Alice felt as if she could not possibly let a day go by without seeing him and straightening it out. Besides, if he didn’t see her to-morrow he might feel that she was offended, or that it had been her mother and she had forbidden her to come near again. “All right. We’ll fix it somehow,” Anna assured her, and asked Alice if she wished her to go in with her. “O Anna, if you would!” cried Alice, throwing her arm about her and embracing her warmly.