Page:The Star in the Window.pdf/210



HE third time that Chadwick Booth was thrown across Reba's path followed so soon after the second occasion, that it seemed almost a continuation of it. It was only three days after Chadwick Booth had asked Reba to let him take her somewhere in his car, that Katherine Park, one warm June Saturday morning, announced in her playfully authoritative manner that she was going to carry Reba off home with her for over Sunday, so please to be ready at five sharp.

The untarnished pleasure that Reba had felt over the unexpected invitation made Dr. Booth and the tone of his voice and the change of his manner when he had said, "we can take the long way round home" fade into insignificance. As Reba made preparation that Saturday morning for the afternoon start at five sharp upon that short, but to her momentous, journey, to the high-court of the house where Katherine Park lived, she had no presentiment of the nature of the awakening that was awaiting her there.

The Park residence proved to be a large, vine-covered, frame house, set low, upon a rolling close-cropped lawn, spread out beneath high chestnut trees, trimmed as sleek as clipped horses. The front door was approached by a long gravel drive, that had been lately raked over—more pleasing than the concrete drive at 89 Chestnut Street, Reba concluded.

In fact, everything about the Park home (the only home, that she had ever spent a Sunday in, besides