"No, it is better not. Let us try to forget it all. I cannot explain it very well, only I don't want you pained by any waiting in vain. You see I should feel all the time as if I ought to be trying

"You might, for my sake; and if you could not, then "Let us go on"; and she turned back to the trodden path. "I suppose I have been very wrong somewhere, leading you to love me, when I—”

He would not

"No, you have never been wrong." have her blame herself any sooner than he would listen to any other person's censure of her. "You cannot help being the sweetest and dearest and most attractive of girls. Everything you do is just right. I mean one would not have you changed in any way; and," with some warmth, "do you suppose everybody is going to be blind always? Other people will love you as well as I."

"Oh, I hope not"; and she shivered. "I do not want any other life for a long while to come. I don't understand it. It seems like going out of the safe, pleasant places, and I do not want to go."

she was

That struck home innocently. He turned too, a little ahead of him in the path, and walked slowly be

side her. For some moments there was silence.

Presently he began :

I have not made you

"I suppose I blundered about it. feel as if I was strong and reliant, and you could trust me for all time. I have not even made you understand how much it was and is to me."

"It is not that." She was crying a little now, just quietly, the tears dropping from her long lashes. "Can't you feel sure, Eugene, that if I wanted any happiness outside of my own home I should be brave enough and true enough to take it when it was offered? And if I wanted it I should know just what it was."

They were silent again. He could not reason it out. Kathie's exceeding honesty blunted his endeavor in some

intangible way. He could only think how much he loved her, and wonder why she would not try to love him.

They came to the drive leading around the lawn to the house. She held out her hand for her small belongings. He gave them to her, but kept on beside her to the very step.

"Good night."

She could not give him any word of comfort that would not be a word of hope as well, yet her heart ached to see him so sad.

"I shall think of you all the time: I cannot help it."

He walked slowly down to the street. She ran up to her own room, threw off her hat, and, dropping on the bed, all her courage seemed to forsake her. She could not even cry. Two or three dry sobs shook her frame, and then she put her hands over her eyes as if to shut out everything. Oh, if Eugene had not made them both miserable!

CHAPTER X.

SHE did not go down when the supper bell rang, for she could not see any one just then. There was a strangely guilty feeling at her heart as the words rang through her ears, "You have made me love you!" What had she done to bring about such a result? They were not on the same terms as - well- Bruce and she, or Charlie and she. It was a mystery she could not fathom.

"Miss Kathie, your uncle sent me up to see if you would not have a cup of tea," said Jane, pausing in the open doorway.

"Gone out to tea. Mr. Conover is down there all alone, for Freddy is at the Archers'."

"Tell Uncle Robert that I don't want any tea, but that I am coming down to the library presently, when I am a little rested."

For she must have the matter settled. She must know where she had been to blame. She could not go on being sweet and attractive and everything-making people care, and being so surprised if they did. There was a safeguard, an armor, that she must put on.

The lamp was burning low on the centre table as she entered the room, sweet with the dew and honeysuckle, and the breath of roses.

"You have tired yourself out." Uncle Robert crossed the room to meet her, and, sheltering her with his arm, drew her near him, as they both seated themselves on the tête-à-tête.

"No, it is not fatigue." Her voice was not quite steady. "You are very pale." But as he looked she flushed deeply.

"Uncle Robert, will you tell me just what you consider a coquette?" she asked.

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Why, a woman who tries to win a man's heart, who makes a bid for his admiration, or who leads him to suppose she cares for him when she really does not. I might give you a more critical analysis." And he smiled. "But if she did not try, if she did not even suspect that he cared."

"It has been the misfortune of some very fine and noble women to inspire a regard they could not return. Sometimes a better happening awaited them when the mistake was overlived, and both came to see clearer. But what has put all this into your head?"

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'You think it ought not be there. I am more sorry

and she will

that

than I can tell that it should have come to me. Uncle Robert, I think I ought to tell you or mamma not be home until quite late, so it must be to you some one cares for me, and wanted me to be engaged." Further she could not go, even in her thought.

"Some one? Kathie, when did it happen?”

"A little while ago,

walking home from the picnic"

She hung her head with a child's diffidence, but he noticed her quick-coming breath, her evident agitation. "Oh, I can guess. Eugene Collamore."

"Do you think, Uncle Robert

"My dear Kathie," he wanted to smile, but he would not have wounded her tender heart for the world, "do not distress yourself so deeply over it. I am extremely sorry it should have happened; and Eugene is nothing but a boy with a first fancy. Such things will occur occasionally. What did you say?"

"I was so surprised, and

But I do not love him, and I tried to make him see, to understand. I don't want to

marry any one. I don't want any real lovers, but just you."

He pressed her closely to his heart and kissed the dewy lips that were tremulous with nervous excitement. all, it was a serious matter to her.

"Tell me all about it. What led to such a talk?”

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After

Nothing. We had fallen behind the others, and he suddenly began. He said I had made him love me, and that he was very unhappy. I like him ever so much, and we have had such pleasant times; but I never tried, because, truly, I never thought about it. He seems to me like Charlie and Dick and the other boys."

"And he really asked you to be engaged?" To Uncle Robert there was a startling audacity in the young lover. "Yes. He said they would all be so glad at home; and oh, what will they think of me now?"

"He did not say he had told them?"

"No. But oh, Uncle Robert, I can almost feel now that Fay does suspect"; and Kathie's face crimsoned to its utmost capacity. "Will they think I ought to—"

"They will have to think as they please, whether justly or unjustly. Since you do not care about the young man's love, the point is settled. He is too immature to know his own mind for manhood, and at his time of life love is merely blind contact,' not the stern necessity of loving. Any sweet, amiable, young girl with whom he was thrown a great deal would attract him."

"I wish it had been some one else," said Kathie with a sigh of regret.

Uncle Robert experienced a sudden check to his reasoning. There had been other girls. Georgie Halford, Rose Gordon, and several who had come before Kathie, and who were alike charming.

"My little girl, it is an unfortunate thing, but I hold you absolved from any real intention to lure him on to this step."