Jerrie was the first to speak of going.  She had hoped that Harold might possibly come for her, but as the time passed on, and he did not appear, she knew he was not coming, and at last arose to say good-night to Nina, while Dick hastened forward and announced his intention to accompany her.

‘No, Dick, no; please don’t,’ she said.  ’I am not a bit afraid, and I would rather you did not go.’

But Dick was persistent.

‘You know you accepted my services this morning,’ he said, and his face, as he went down the steps with Jerrie on his arm, wore a very different expression from that of poor Tom, who, with Ann Eliza coming about to his elbow, stalked moodily along the road, scarcely hearing and not always replying to the commonplace remarks of his companion, who had never been so happy in her life, because never before had she been out alone in the evening with Tom Tracy as her escort.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

OUT IN THE STORM.

For half an hour or more before the young people left the house a dark mass of clouds had been rolling up from the west, and by the time that they were out of the grounds and on the highway, the moonlight was wholly obscured and the sky was overcast as with a pall, while frequent groans of thunder and flashes of lightning in the distance told of the fast coming storm.

‘Oh, I am so afraid of thunder!  Aren’t you?’ Ann Eliza cried, in terror, as she clung closer to Tom, who, beside her, seemed a very giant, and who did not reply until there came a gleam of lightning which showed him the white face and the loose hair blowing out from under his companion’s hat.

There was a little shriek of fear and a smothered cry.  ’Oh, Tom, aren’t you a bit afraid?’

And then the giant answered the trembling little girl whom he would like to have shaken off, she clung so closely to him ’Thunder and lightning, no!’ I’m not afraid of anything except getting wet; and if you are, you’d better run before the whole thing is upon us; the sky is blacker than midnight now.  I never saw a storm come on so fast.  Can you run?’

‘Yes—­some,’ Ann Eliza gasped out; ’only my boots are so tight and new, and the heels are so high.  Do you think we shall be struck?’

This as a peal of thunder louder than any which had preceded it rolled over their heads, making Ann Eliza clutch Tom’s arm in nervous terror which was not feigned.

’Struck?  No.  But don’t screech and hang on to me so.  We can never get along if you do,’ Tom growled; and, taking her by the wrist, he dragged rather than led her through the woods where the great rain-drops were beginning to fall so fast as the two showers—­one from the west and one from the south—­approached each other, until at last they met overhead, and then commenced a wild and fierce battle of the elements, the southern storm and the western storm each seemingly trying to outdo the other and come off conqueror.