It made no difference to him that nearly every other girl there, his sister among the rest, wore her neck uncovered by even a kerchief; he felt that Charlotte should not have done so.

The other young men were swarming up the trees with the girls' baskets, but he stood aloof with his forehead knitted; it was as if all his reason had deserted him.

All at once there was a rustle at his side, and Rose Berry touched him on the arm; he started, and looked down into her softly glowing little face.
[Illustration: "Charlotte stood beside another girl"] "Oh, here you are!" said she, and her voice had adoring cadences.
Barney nodded.
"I was afraid you weren't coming," said she, and she panted softly through her red parted lips.
Rose's crisp pink muslin gown flared scalloping around her like the pink petals of a hollyhock; her slender white arms showed through the thin sleeves.

Barney could not look away from her wide-open, unfaltering blue eyes, which suddenly displayed to him strange depths.

Charlotte, during all his courtship, had never looked up in his face like that.