"I thought--as long as I was going by--that I'd stop and speak to you,"
she said.

He shook his head, unsoftened as yet by her presence. "You didn't treat
me fair yesterday, Molly," he answered.

"Oh, I wanted to tell you about that. I quite meant to go with you--only
it went out of my head."

"That's a pretty excuse, isn't it, to offer a man?"

"Well, you aren't the only one I've offered it to," she dimpled
enchantingly, "the rector had to be satisfied with it as well. He asked
me, too, and when I forgot I'd promised you, I said I'd go with him to
see old Abigail. Then I forgot that, too," she added with a penitent
sigh, "and went down to the low grounds."

"You managed to come up in time to meet Mr. Jonathan at the
cross-roads," he commented with bitterness.

A less daring adventurer than Molly would have hesitated at his tone and
grown cautious, but a certain blithe indifference to the consequences of
her actions was a part of her lawless inheritance from the Gays.

"I think him very good-looking, don't you?" she inquired sweetly.

"Good-looking? I should think not--a fat fop like that."

"Is he fat? I didn't notice it--but, of course, I didn't mean that he