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 She halted also. "Why, what did you mean by that, Mr. Herrick?" she asked him seriously.

"Why," he replied, surprised. "I don't know; I just said it. I'm glad you're here, I mean."

"That's not what you said."

"No," he admitted. "Good night, Miss Netley. I'll see you to-morrow, I hope."

"I hope so, Mr. Herrick." She turned quickly and with Nell went on, leaving him under the light.

As he stood there, watching after her, again he appreciated the extraordinary aliveness and vitality of her which made her seem altogether another sort of person from Nell. He had hurt her, he realized, by that sudden remark about "trying us now." In the reason for her change from Minnesota to Stanford and now to Northwestern, there was something which made her sensitive to his remark; he told himself that he should have guessed that there might be and as he watched her disappear down the street, he wondered what her reason was. "She's certainly unusual," he said aloud to himself. Then he turned to Willard and, thinking of Alice, found himself more stirred and more impatient for her to come out to him.