of a mile away.

"I thought he wasn't going to be at Mrs. North's for dinner," Anne
observed quietly, in the silence. She had been informally asked to
the Norths' for dinner that evening herself, and had declined for
no other reason than that attractive Martin Lloyd was presumably
not to be there.

"He wasn't," Cherry said. "He thought he had to go to town at six.
I just stopped in to give them Dad's message, and they teased me
to stay. You knew where I was, didn't you--Dad?" she murmured.

"Mrs. North telephoned about six, and said you were there, but she
didn't say that Mr. Lloyd was," Anne said, with a faint hint of
discontent in her tone.

Alix fixed her bright, mischievous eyes upon the two, and
suspended her reading for a moment. Alix's attitude toward the
opposite sex was one of calm contempt, outwardly. But she had made
rather an exception of Martin Lloyd, and had recently had a
conversation with him on the subject of sensible, platonic
friendships between men and women. At the mention of his name she
looked up, remembering this talk with a little thrill.

His name had thrilled Anne, too, although she betrayed no sign of
it as she sat quietly matching silks. In fact, all three of the
girls were quite ready to fall in love with young Lloyd, if two of
them had not actually done so.

He was a newcomer in the little town, a tall, presentable fellow,