Anyway, there’s a brass tack for you to ponder.”

She made another reluctant step away, then called back in a whisper, her face over her shoulder:

“Red Cloud, I’m dreadfully sorry� . And through it all I’m so glad that you do still love me.”

Before Blake returned, Dick found time to study his face in the glass. Printed there was the expression that had startled his company the preceding evening. It had come to stay. Oh, well, was his thought, one cannot chew his heart between his teeth without leaving some sign of it.

He strolled out on the sleeping porch and looked at Paula’s picture under the barometers. He turned it to the wall, and sat on the bed and regarded the blankness for a space. Then he turned it back again.