Page:The Star in the Window.pdf/215

Rh inexhaustible topic of the European War. The realization that this man had asked her to go riding with him three days ago in the very car drawn up there in the Park drive filled Reba with tingling pride. Why, this man's cigarette ashes she had held in the palm of her hand! This man's firm shoulder muscles she had felt beneath her arm!

He had no idea that she was there—hadn't caught her name in Gerard Park's off-hand introduction, of course, and even if he had, would not have connected her with the official young lady who occupied the desk in the Red Cross rooms at the Alliance. It was fortunate. Reba didn't want to be discovered; didn't, of all things, want to appear at a disadvantage before Dr. Booth, and she would be sure to in this unfamiliar setting.

She began hoping after the first half-hour had passed that he would rise and go, and relieve her of the apprehension of discovery. At any moment, it suddenly occurred to her, the conversation might veer about, so that Katherine Park would recall Dr. Booth's connection with her position at the Alliance, and mention it.

It was not thus, however, that Chadwick recognized Reba. He must have been sitting there on the veranda a full hour when Tommy Blake suddenly shoved back his chair and disappeared into the house. A minute later a victrola just inside an open window began playing the opening phrases of a popular dance; and Tommy, returning, made significant motions with his arms and feet to Mrs. Remington seated on the piazza railing.

"All right, Tommy," Mrs. Remington nodded back,