permission to walk down the street with you, because if any one were
looking at us from these windows, and saw us pursued by a bareheaded
man with a revolver, they will now, on looking out again, learn that
it is all right, and may even come to regard the revolver and the
hatless one as an optical delusion."

Again the girl laughed.

"I am quite unknown in Bar Harbor, having fewer acquaintances than
even a stranger like yourself, therefore so far as I am concerned it
does not in the least matter whether any one saw us or not. We shall
walk together, then, as far as the spot where the cashier overtook us,
and this will give me an opportunity of explaining, if not of
excusing, my leaving the money on the counter. I am sure my conduct
must have appeared inexplicable both to you and the cashier, although,
of course, you would be too polite to say so."

"I assure you, Miss Amhurst--"

"I know what you would say," she interrupted, with a vivacity which
had not heretofore characterized her, "but, you see, the distance to
the corner is short, and, as I am in a hurry, if you don't wish my
story to be continued in our next--"

"Ah, if there is to be a next--" murmured the young man so fervently
that it was now the turn of color to redden her cheeks.

"I am talking heedlessly," she said quickly. "What I want to say is
this: I have never had much money. Quite recently I inherited what had
been accumulated by a relative whom I never knew. It seemed so