"I just can't--not yet, Watts." "Well, I thought maybe you'd changed your mind." He smiled as he continued, "You know they say women do change sometimes." She looked down at him sadly.

"Yes, I know they do, but some way I don't." There was a long pause while Watts screwed up his courage to say, "Still kind of thinking about that preacher ?" The woman had no animation in her voice as she replied, "You know that by now--without asking." The man sat down on the step, and she sat on a lower step.

He was silent for a time.

Then he said, "Funny, ain't it ?" She knew she was not to reply; for in a dozen years she had learned the man's moods.

In a minute, during which he looked into his hat absent-mindedly, he went on: "As far as I've been able to make it out, love's a kind of a grand-right-and-left.