"I have merely decided to move around the corner," the young man remarked grimly.
Miss Hitchcock's lips trembled. She walked more slowly, and she tried to say something, to make some ill-defined appeal. As she had almost found the words, a carriage approached the Hitchcock house and drew up. Out of it Colonel Hitchcock stepped heavily. His silk hat was crushed, and his clothes were covered with dust.
"Papa!" his daughter exclaimed, running forward anxiously. "What has happened? Where have you been? Are you hurt?"
"No, yes, I guess not," the old man laughed good-naturedly. "Howdy do, doctor! They stopped the train out by Grand Crossing, and some fellows began firing stones. It was pretty lively for a time. I thought you and your mother would worry, so I got out of it the best way I could and came in on the street cars."
"Poor papa!" the girl exclaimed, seizing his arm. She glanced at Sommers defiantly. Here was her argument. Sommers looked on coolly, not accepting the challenge.
"Won't you come in, doctor?" Colonel Hitchcock asked. "Do come in and rest," his daughter added.
But the young doctor shook his head.
"I think I will go home and brush up—around the corner," he added with slight irony.
The girl turned to her father and took his arm, and they slowly walked up the path to the big darkened house.