Sue moved away to the hearth. “No,” she said decidedly.
He followed her, laughing, and pried open her fingers. She seized the chain and pulled back. He held on to the locket and stood his ground. The next moment the chain broke and slipped through Sue’s fingers, and the locket was in his hand.
Sue sprang forward and tried to regain it. “Oh, Phil, don’t look!” she pleaded. “Please, Phil, please. You——”
But he had fled to the other end of the room, pressed the locket-spring, looked, caught his breath, stared at her in amazement, backed a step——
She covered her face with her trembling fingers. “Oh, Phil!” she whispered tearfully; “Oh, Phil!”
He ran to her then and caught her to him. “Sue!” he cried tenderly. “My girl! How could you keep it there—when I’ve been such a fool! But this whole thing has taught me what your dear comradeship means to me, and just how much I love you.” And he drew her trembling hands away while he kissed her.
She clung to him, crying, and hid her face; then smiled up at him through swimming eyes, and drew his face down to hers.
“Where did you get it, Sue?” he asked.
“You remember the party your mother gave for your sixteenth birthday?” she whispered. “Well, that night this was in her dressing-room. And—and—you know I said either one of us would do if we were tempted just right—Phil, I—I stole it!”
Opening his eyes in mock displeasure, Phil held her at arm’s length for a moment. Then very solemnly, he led her to a window. “You stole it?” he said; “you—fifteen hands and every inch a lady? Well, let me warn you never, never to let that man know!” And he pointed down to the edge of the terrace where, waiting, with one hand at the bit of a grey pony, and the other at the bit of a brown, stood a red-haired, red-cheeked groom.