SON OF THE WIND
distress, but without any relenting. It was a deadlock. "I don't doubt that a man is in the way while women are going over a house," he went on.
She murmured, "O no! You helped us more than I can say! That is one reason why I didn't want you to—on account of what I'm having to ask you. I don't know what you will think of me!"
"I shan't think anything startling," he assured her lightly; but indeed he did not know what to think. Her words declared to him that her state of mind had not been born suddenly of the moment's suspicions. It was the culmination of a feeling which had been hers in the past, an attitude which had been constant toward him from the first, before he saw Blanche Rader, before he even knew Blanche Rader existed. Though his mind might dart and turn, the significance of it was bewildering to fathom. "I knew you were sorry you had taken me in as soon as I was in the house," he said boldly. "I have seen that all along, and I have wondered if there was any special thing I have said or done to make you take a dislike to me."
"It was nothing. I don't dislike you. We all like you very much. You must have noticed how Mr. Rader is. He is quite changed since you came, waked up." She looked at him wistfully, as a child looks at spring. "You have such a way of be-
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