THE MAN IN SADDLE
He took her by the shoulders and held her off from him. "Didn't you tell her?"
She drooped guiltily. "Don't be angry. I was going to, but then I thought about last night—of showing you what I did, and I couldn't seem to think about anything else. I thought I would tell her today instead."
He found himself a little jerked back in the ease of his arrangements. He had expected to find this matter settled. "Then go and tell her on the spot, and ask if I may see her before I go. Never mind if you don't feel like it," he added, as the girl hesitated. "We ought to get this thing straightened out."
"It isn't that," Blanche explained, "but I am afraid I can't, not now. She isn't up, you see, at least she isn't out of her room. She has a bad headache."
"Can't you speak to her just the same?"
"I'm afraid I can't. Her door is locked, and she says she mustn't be disturbed. I knocked a little while ago, but she doesn't answer. I think she is asleep."
Carron bit his lip. He was afraid to press the point too hard lest the girl suspect something in the wind; and yet to have to leave everything in this doubtful mess! He had meant to have his relation to Blanche well understood before he went. That
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