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AS ABNER opened his door the girl in the hallway glanced around at him, apparently on the verge of flight. This wrought up the teamster more than ever. He stepped out in the hall, moved by some irrational impulse to pursue her and make her retract something, he scarcely knew what. He called her name in a shaken voice.

Nessie paused, looked around at him, and asked in a tone as disturbed as his own what he wanted. Abner did not know what he wanted or what he meant to ask her to do. He moved her note which he still held in his hand.

"You kain't go to the dance?"

"Abner," she said breathlessly, "I told you in my note I belonged to the church."

The teamster's heart beat so heavily that the girl seemed to shake in little pulses before his eyes.

"But you said you had another engagement."

Nessie nodded almost imperceptibly.

An exaggerated apprehension seized Abner.

"Who with, Nessie?"

The girl flushed abruptly. "You mustn't ast me that."

For her to keep any of her affairs hidden from him seemed almost unbearable to Abner. He moved impulsively toward her.

"But you must tell me, Nessie. . . . Good Lord. . . ."

He seemed so imminent, so wrought upon, that the girl was almost afraid of him. She took a pace back, breathing unevenly.

"Mr. Belshue," she said in a scarcely audible voice.

Abner came to a stricken pause, staring at her.