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 7 CHAPTER

XVII

Ixststent jangling of the telephone woke Scott next

morning at the cluh, He was prepared for the rough sweetness of Pat's voice in his ear. “Ts that you, Mr. Scott? Aren’t you up yet? Lazy “Good-morning, little Pat. What time is it?” “J did wake you up, then. It’s terribly early—for me. Only nine. Aren't you surprised to hear me?” “Not a bit.” “Oh! You expected me to call up. Boasting, aren’t you? I didn’t intend to call you.” “But I intended to call you. Whst changed your mind?” “Oh, I don"t know,” she said evasively.

early myself, and I suppose I felt lonely.

“I woke up

When are you

coming out?" “Just as soon as I can get there.”

Her soft, elfin chuckle was the reception which this announcement

see you now.

got.

“Quick, then!

I want

awfully te

And I might change my mind later.

Throughout the hurried processes of dressing while he breakfasted,

Scott

strove

to quiet

and

command

his

thoughts, to find some clue to this tangle of passion wherein he had become ensnared. Incredible that he should so have lost himself, after the warning of the earlier experience.

She, too, had been carried beyond her depth

by a feeling presumably uninterpretable to her inexper® ence; so he believed. True, she had been through sentimental encounters before, by her own admission, but he

too fatuously assumed that these were of minor and ise