" It's Jack," she said, half aloud.
early. He scarcely ever comes till dusk."
Then, seeing him look up toward her as he advanced, she
waved her hand to him. In a few moments he had reached her
side.
" Good evening, Marion," he said, as he removed his broad
sombrero from his head and flung it negligently upon the ground,
revealing a sunbrowned, though singularly handsome face, set
with a pair of laughing gray eyes. " You seem surprised to see
" Why, yes, I am, a little," she confessed.
you so soon."
" Oh, well, it is Saturday, and so I quit work earlier than
usual. Besides I'd much rather be ,Aere with you than alone
clown in the gulch."
All imagination," she retorted, smiling up at him.
know you don't mean it."
" But I do, though," he said, earnestly.
special reason to come so early this evening."
" Indeed!" she replied in a doubting voice
know what that special reason is."
" You'll find out soon enough," he answered. " The truth is,
I am going to ask you a very serious question—very serious—and
I want you to give me an answer to it."
" Oh, dear. lam sure I can never do it, if it's serious. I
never can be serious. I thought it was a riddle, perhaps."
" Yes, but you can answer it, and that in one syllable, too,"
he insisted.
" Go ahead, then," she. commanded, looking at him all unsus
pectingly, " and don't keep me waiting."
He leaned down till her brown hair brushed his cheek and
gently whispered a few words in her ear—whispered them so low
that even the trees might not hear what he said.
Then she glanced tip again, but the expression of her face had
changed.
" Oh, Jack, I had never even dreamed of this. I thought we
would ever be only friends, as we always have been. No, Jack,
I can't marry you, because I don't love you except as a sister
would."
" But you might learn to do so," he pleaded,
The Free Lance.
" I wonder why he is so
ERNE,
" I didn't expect
" You
" And then I had a
" I would like to
" Is there no