“See hyar, Miss Lenore, I reckon you care a heap fer young Dorn—­beggin’ your pardon?” queried Jake.

“Care for him!...  Jake, I love him.”

“Then take a hunch from me an’ keep him home—­with you—­to-night.”

“Does father want Kurt Dorn to go—­wherever he’s going?”

“Wal, I should smile!  Your dad likes the way Dorn handles I.W.W.’s,” replied Jake, significantly.

“Vigilantes!” whispered Lenore.

CHAPTER XX

Lenore waited for Kurt, and stood half concealed behind the curtains.  It had dawned upon her that she had an ordeal at hand.  Her heart palpitated.  She heard his quick step on the stairs.  She called before she showed herself.

“Hello!...  Oh, but you startled me!” he exclaimed.  He had been surprised, too, at the abrupt meeting.  Certainly he had not been thinking of her.  His pale, determined face attested to stern and excitable thought.

He halted before her.

“Where are you going?” asked Lenore.

“To see your father.”

“What about?”

“It’s rather important,” he replied, with hesitation.

“Will it take long?”

He showed embarrassment.  “I—­He—­We’ll be occupied ’most all evening.”

“Indeed!...  Very well.  If you’d rather be—­occupied—­than spend the evening with me!” Lenore turned away, affecting a disdainful and hurt manner.

“Lenore, it’s not that,” he burst out.  “I—­I’d rather spend an evening with you than anybody else—­or do anything.”

“That’s very easy to say, Mr. Dorn,” she returned, lightly.

“But it’s true,” he protested.

“Come out of the hall.  Father will hear us,” she said, and led him into the room.  It was not so light in there, but what light there was fell upon his face and left hers in shadow.

“I’ve made an—­an appointment for to-night,” he declared, with difficulty.

“Can’t you break it?” she asked.

“No.  That would lay me open to—­to cowardice—­perhaps your father’s displeasure.”

“Kurt Dorn, it’s brave to give up some things!...  And if you go you’ll incur my displeasure.”

“Go!” he ejaculated, staring at her.

“Oh, I know!...  And I’m—­well, not flattered to see you’d rather go hang I.W.W.’s than stay here with me.”  Lenore did not feel the assurance and composure with which she spoke.  She was struggling with her own feelings.  She believed that just as soon as she and Kurt understood each other—­faced each other without any dissimulation—­then she would feel free and strong.  If only she could put the situation on a sincere footing!  She must work for that.  Her difficulty was with a sense of falsity.  There was no time to plan.  She must change his mind.

Her words had made him start.

“Then you know?” he asked.

“Of course.”