CHAPTER Fourteen.
_Her Little Joke_ A brief ten minutes of waiting beside the front door of the house, and then Ronicky Doone heard a swift pattering of feet on the stairs.
Presently the girl was moving very slowly toward him down the hall.
Plainly she was bitterly afraid when she came beside him, under the dim hall light.

She wore that same black hat, turned back from her white face, and the red flower beside it was a dull, uncertain blur.

Decidedly she was pretty enough to explain Bill Gregg's sorrow.
Ronicky gave her no chance to think twice.

She was in the very act of murmuring something about a change of mind, when he opened the door and, stepping out into the starlight, invited her with a smile and a gesture to follow.

In a moment they were in the freshness of the night air.