Fate cruelly had brought melancholy into this, the first morning of his love.

Kenny shivered with resentment.
He telephoned the doctor's farm and found him ready to start his weary ambulant day; hamlet to hamlet, farm to farm, until dusk and often after.

The bare thought of it filled Kenny with sympathetic gloom.
Then his brain began again to burn in speculation.

Frowning, he turned back homewards up the hill and through the wood, where the road lay, rough and lonely.
With his mind upon it he evolved Nellie from her harness and led her into the stall.

When he had done with her halter he found that Joan had slipped into the barn and stood a little way off, her soft eyes intent upon him.
"Joan!" he exclaimed radiantly.