For  an  hour  Louise  sat  on  the  floor  in  the  dark-
ness and  listened.  Without  words  Mary  Hardy,
with  the  aid  of  the  man  who  had  come  to  spend
the  evening  with  her,  brought  to  the  country  girl
a  knowledge  of  men  and  women.  Putting  her
head  down  until  she  was  curled  into  a  little  ball
she  lay  perfectly  still.  It  seemed  to  her  that  by


SURRENDER  97

some  strange  impulse  of  the  gods,  a  great  gift
had  been  brought  to  Mary  Hardy  and  she  could
not  understand  the  older,  woman's  determined
protest.
The  young  man  took  Mary  Hardy  into  his  arms
and  kissed  her.  When  she  struggled  and  laughed,
he  but  held  her  the  more  tightly.  For  an  hour
the  contest  between*  them  went  on  and  then  they
went  back  into  the  parlor  and  Louise  escaped  up
the  stairs.  "I  hope  you  were  quiet  out  there.
You  must  not  disturb  the  little  mouse  at  her
studies,"  she  heard  Harriet  saying  to  her  sister
as  she  stood  by  her  own  door  in  the  hallway  above.
Louise  wrote  a  note  to  John  Hardy  and  late
that  night  when  all  in  the  house  were  asleep,  she
crept  downstairs  and  slipped  it  under  his  door.
She  was  afraid  that  if  she  did  not  do  the  thing
at  once  her  courage  would  fail.  In  the  note  she
tried  to  be  quite  definite  about  what  she  wanted.
