meet--?" There was no name, but a sympathetic understanding. It was
Harkness of whom they thought.

"I'm sure he's a great deal better looking than young Mr. Brown, and I
think it's unkind to mind the way he talks. Since Winifred had her teeth
done, I think we might just bow a little, if we met him on the road."

"I think it would be naughty," said Red, reflectively, "but nice--much
nicer than a grown-up picnic."

"Let's do it," said Blue. "We're awfully good generally; that ought to
make up."

The sunset cloud was still rosy, and the calm bright moon was riding up
the heavens when these two naughty little maidens, who had waited out of
sight of the picnic ground, judged it might be the right time to be
walking slowly home again.

"I feel convinced he won't come," said Blue, "just because we should so
much like to pass him in these frocks."

Now an evil conscience often is the rod of its own chastisement; but in
this instance there was another factor in the case, nothing less than a
little company of half tipsy men, who came along from the town,
peacefully enough, but staggering visibly and talking loud, and the
girls caught sight of them when they had come a long way from the
pleasure party and were not yet very near any house. The possibility of
passing in safety did not enter their panic-stricken minds. They no
sooner spied the men than they stepped back within the temporary shelter
of a curve in the road, speechless with terror. They heard the voices