Page:Stella Dallas, a novel (IA stelladallasnove00prou).pdf/237

Rh mysterious girl ever since the first moment that she had noticed that her wrist was bare. It awed and silenced him.

It wasn't until they were returning from Stag Island that he remarked, "You must think a lot of that watch."

She replied, "I'll never forget you're coming to help me find it."

"But we haven't been successful."

"That doesn't matter. I'll never forget it. Never, never, never, never."

A similar high current of feeling coursed through Richard, too, at the sound of her low voice, earnestly repeating the single word to him.

was after nine o'clock when Laurel and Richard reached the pier for the second time that evening. It was deserted. So, too, Laurel observed, with a fresh wave of gratitude for the boy who had saved her, and her mother also, were the rustic seats.

"I'm going in by a side door," Laurel said to Richard, as they walked toward the lighted hotel. "You go in the other way. You see the crowd. I want to go right up to my mother as quickly as I can."

"But you'll be down again?"

"Not to-night."

"You haven't had any dinner."

"I'll have some sent up."

"But—"

"Please."

"Shan't I see you again to-night?"