“The supply of freckles holds out in my family, you see!” she said.  “Both of the girls will have them, and the second boy a few.”

She stood an instant longer, then bending, ran her hand caressingly down a rosy bare leg, while she kissed the babyish red mouth.  There had been some reason for touching all of them, the kiss fell on the lips which were like Freckles’s.

To Elnora she said a tender good-night, whispering brave words of encouragement and making plans to fill the days to come.  Then she went away.  An hour later there was a light tap on the girl’s door.

“Come!” she called as she lay staring into the dark.

The Angel felt her way to the bedside, sat down and took Elnora’s hands.

“I just had to come back to you,” she said.  “I have been telling Freckles, and he is almost hurting himself with laughing.  I didn’t think it was funny, but he does.  He thinks it’s the funniest thing that ever happened.  He says that to run away from Mr. Ammon, when you had made him no promise at all, when he wasn’t sure of you, won’t send him home to her; it will set him hunting you!  He says if you had combined the wisdom of Solomon, Socrates, and all the remainder of the wise men, you couldn’t have chosen any course that would have sealed him to you so surely.  He feels that now Mr. Ammon will perfectly hate her for coming down there and driving you away.  And you went to give her the chance she wanted.  Oh, Elnora!  It is becoming funny!  I see it, too!”

The Angel rocked on the bedside.  Elnora faced the dark in silence.

“Forgive me,” gulped the Angel.  “I didn’t mean to laugh.  I didn’t think it was funny, until all at once it came to me.  Oh, dear!  Elnora, it is funny!  I’ve got to laugh!”

“Maybe it is,” admitted Elnora “to others; but it isn’t very funny to me.  And it won’t be to Philip, or to mother.”

That was very true.  Mrs. Comstock had been slightly prepared for stringent action of some kind, by what Elnora had said.  The mother instantly had guessed where the girl would go, but nothing was said to Philip.  That would have been to invalidate Elnora’s test in the beginning, and Mrs. Comstock knew her child well enough to know that she never would marry Philip unless she felt it right that she should.  The only way was to find out, and Elnora had gone to seek the information.  There was nothing to do but wait until she came back, and her mother was not in the least uneasy but that the girl would return brave and self-reliant, as always.

Philip Ammon hurried back to the Limberlost, strong in the hope that now he might take Elnora into his arms and receive her promise to become his wife.  His first shock of disappointment came when he found her gone.  In talking with Mrs. Comstock he learned that Edith Carr had made an opportunity to speak with Elnora alone.  He hastened down the road to meet her, coming back alone, an agitated man.  Then search revealed the notes.  His read: