"
Janice lifted up her lovely eyes.
"Oh, yes, you would," she said simply. "If somebody's future happiness
depended upon her you would humor her just as much as I do."
Jack was touched.
"You are an angel of unselfishness," he exclaimed, warmly, "and I don't
deserve such devotion."
"Oh, don't be too grateful," she replied, dimpling. "The person to whose
future happiness I referred was myself."
They both laughed softly at that--softly and mutually.
"Nevertheless," Jack went on after a minute, "if to all the other puzzles
is to be added the torture of being unable to see you or speak freely to
you, I think the hour for action has arrived."
"For action!" she cried; "what are you thinking of doing?"
"This," he said, and straightway took her into his arms and kissed her as
he had kissed her on the night before.
"Oh, if Lucinda has heard or your aunt has seen!" poor Janice cried,
extricating herself and setting her cap to rights with a species of
fluttered haste that led Jack to wonder suddenly why men didn't fall in
love with maids even oftener than they do. "I do believe that you have
gone and done it this time."
"Nobody heard and nobody saw," he assured her, but he didn't at all mean
what he said, for his prayers were fervent that his kiss had been public
property.
And such was the fact.
Lucinda bounced in on Joshua with a bounce that turned the can of harness
polish upside down, for Joshua was oiling the harnesses.
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