"Yes," she returned, in a faint, embarrassed voice. "I thought I'd run
on ahead of ma!"

"Will you allow me to accompany you?"

"It's only a step," she protested, indicating the light in the window of
the superintendent's house, the most remote of the group of buildings,
yet scarcely a quarter of a mile distant.

"But it's quite dark," he persisted smilingly.

She stepped from the platform to the ground; he instantly followed and
ranged himself at a little distance from her side. She protested still
feebly against his "troubling himself," but in another moment they were
walking on quietly together. Nevertheless, a few paces from the platform
they came upon the upheaved clods of the fresh furrows, and their
progress over them was slow and difficult.

"Shall I help you? Will you take my arm?" he said politely.

"No, thank you, Mr. Reddy."

So! she knew his name! He tried to look into her eyes, but the woolen
scarf hid her head. After all, there was nothing strange in her
knowing him; she probably had the names of the men before her in the
dining-room, or on the books. After a pause he said:--

"You quite startled me. One becomes such a mere working machine here
that one quite forgets one's own name,--especially with the prefix of