"Steals away! By himself!" faltered he.

"Why, yes. Did you really think he would come back? Didn't you know that
the ten minutes he spoke of were only a blind, so that he could shake
you off, and not make Mrs. Higgs angry by taking another man with him?
Surely, surely, you guessed that! Surely, you knew that if the ten
minutes had not been an excuse, he would have been back here long ago."

Max felt the blood surging to his head. The girl was right, of course.
He leaned against the bookcase, breathing heavily.

"You knew! You guessed! Why didn't you--why didn't you tell me?"

Carrie stood up, as much excited as he was. Her blue eyes flashed, her
lips trembled as she spoke.

"What do I care--for him?" she said under her breath. "A man must take
the risk of the things he does, mustn't he? But you--you had done
nothing; and--and you have been kind to me. I didn't want you to go. I
couldn't let you go. So I tried to keep you. I didn't want you to
remember. And it was easy enough."

Max felt a pang of keen self-reproach. Yes, it had been easy enough for
a girl with a pretty face to make him forget his friend. He turned
quickly toward the door. But Carrie moved even more rapidly, and by the
time he reached it she was there before him.

"It's too late now," she said in that deep voice of hers, which, when
she was herself moved, was capable of imparting her own emotion to her
hearers. "He's been gone an hour. He'll be there by this time. What good