He was too startled to speak--and Miss Anita Flagg seemed to understand that and to wish to give him time; for, without regarding him in the least, and as though to establish the fact that she had come to stay, she began calmly and deliberately to remove the bell-like hat.

This accomplished, she bent toward him, her eyes looking straight into his, her smile reproaching him.

In the familiar tone of an old and dear friend she said to him gently: "This is the day you planned for me.

Don't you think you've wasted quite enough of it ?" Sam looked back into the eyes, and saw in them no trace of laughter or of mockery, but, instead, gentle reproof and appeal--and something else that, in turn, begged of him to be gentle.
For a moment, too disturbed to speak, he looked at her, miserably, remorsefully.
"It's not Anita Flagg at all," he said.

"It's Sister Anne come back to life again!" The girl shook her head.
"No; it's Anita Flagg.