It was the boy who drew his hand away.

The girl gasped:-- "Why, John Barclay,--it ain't no such thing--does your ma know it ?" He told her that no one knew it but her, and they pumped in silence until the bucket was full, and walking back carrying the bucket between them, he told her another secret: that Watts McHurdie had asked John to get his guitar after midnight, and play an accompaniment to the accordion, and that Watts and Ward and Jake Dolan and Gabriel Carnine were going out serenading.

Further he told her that Watts was going to serenade Nellie Logan at the Thayer House, and that Gabriel Carnine was going to serenade Mary Murphy, and that Philemon Ward was going to serenade Miss Lucy, and that he, John Barclay, had suggested that it would be fine to serenade Mrs.Culpepper, because she was such a nice woman, and they agreed that if he would bring his guitar, they would! When the boy and girl returned to the store, Ward and Miss Lucy went to the Barclay home for the guitar.

When they came back, Mrs.Barclay noted a pink welt on one of Ward's fingers where his cameo ring had been, and she observed that from time to time Miss Lucy kept feeling of her hair as if to smooth it.

It was long after midnight before the girls from the hotel went home, and Miss Lucy and Mrs.Barclay lay on the counter in the store, trying to sleep.