in any kind of a wagon, and I surely hope you won't leave me on this
lonely dock in the rain."

"Certainly not," said Arden, reddening in the darkness that he could
be thought capable of such an act. "But I thought I could drive to the
village and send a carriage for you."

"I would rather go with you now, if you will let me," said Edith
decidedly.

"The best I have is at your service, but I fear you will be sorry for
your choice. I've only a board for a seat, and my wagon has no
springs. Perhaps I could get a low box for you to sit on."

"Hannibal can sit on the box. With your permission I will sit with
you, for I wish to ask you some questions."

Arden hung his lantern on a hook in front of his wagon, and helped or
partly lifted Edith over the wheel to the seat, which was simply a
board resting on the sides of the box. He turned a butter-tub upside
down for Hannibal, and then they jogged out from behind the boat-house
where he had sheltered his horses.

This was all a new experience to Arden. He had, from his surly
misanthropy, little familiarity with society of any kind, and since as
a boy he had romped with the girls at school he had been almost a
total stranger to all women save those in his own home. Most young men
would have been awkward louts under the circumstances. But this was
not true of Arden, for he had daily been holding converse in the books
he dreamed over with women of finer clay than he could have found at