Kate stopped to look in a florist’s window and fixed her eyes upon a vast bouquet of pale pink roses.

“Do say something,” he said after a time.  “Shall I speak from the heart?”

“Oh, yes, please.”  He drew his breath in sharply between his teeth.

“Well, then, I’m not ready to give up my free life, Ray.  I can’t seem to see my way to relinquishing any part of my liberty.  I think you know why.  I’ve told you everything in my letters.  I feel too experimental to settle down.”

“You don’t love me!”

“Did I ever say I did?”

“You gave me to understand that you might.”

“You wanted me to try.”

“But you haven’t succeeded?  Then, for heaven’s sake, let me go and make out some other programme for myself.  I’ve come back to you because I couldn’t be satisfied away from you.  I’ve seen women, if it comes to that,—­cities of women.  But there’s no one like you, Kate, to my mind; no one who so makes me enjoy the hour, or so plan for the future.  Ever since that day when you stood up by the C Bench and fought for the right of women to sit on it,—­that silly old C Bench,—­I’ve liked your warring spirit.  And I come back, by Jove, to find you marching with the militant women!  Well, I didn’t know whether to laugh or swear!  Anyway, you do beat the world.”

“A pretty sweetheart I’d make,” cried Kate, disgusted with herself.  “I’m only good to provide you with amusement, it seems.”

“You provide me with the breath of life!  Heavens, what a spring you have when you walk!  And you ’re as straight as a grenadier.  I’m so sick of seeing slouching, die-away women!  It’s only you American women who know how to carry yourselves.  Oh, Kate, if you can’t answer me, don’t, but let me see you once in a while.  I’m a weak character, and I’ve got to enjoy your society a little longer.”

“You can enjoy as much of it as you please, only you mustn’t be holding me up to some tremendous responsibility, and blaming me by and by for things I can’t help.”

“I give you my word I’ll not.  Oh, Kate, is this a busy day with you?  Can’t you come out into the country somewhere?  We could take the electric and in an hour we’d be out where we could see orchards in bloom.”

“I could go,” mused Kate.  “I’ve a half-holiday coming to me, and really, if I were to take it to-day, no one would care.”

“The ayes have it!  Let us go to the station-I’ll buy plenty of tickets and we can get off at any place where the climate seems mild and the natives kind.”

* * * * *

It proved to be a day of encounters.

They had traveled well beyond the city, past the straggling suburbs and the comfortable, friendly old villages, some of which antedated the city of which they were now the fringe, and had reached the wider sweeps of the prairie, with the fine country homes of those who sought privacy.  At length they came to a junction of the road.