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him, but that the mechanical difficulties inherent in the desperate venture now depressed him terribly. Haley counted seven separate pieces of luggage.
     
    “Darling,” whispered Kitty, throwing her arms about Roy’s neck.
     
    Roy received the embrace woodenly. “Gee whiz, Kitty, half that stuff won’t even fit through the window, let alone fit in the saddle bags,” he said forlornly.
     
    “You said we might be on the road for ten days; right in black and white you said that.”
     
    “Sure, Honey, but we aren’t going in a moving van.”
     
    “Better get going while the going’s good,” warned Hope.
     
    Kitty began to look rattled. “What’re you taking?” she asked.
     
    “Change of socks, change of underwear,” said Roy.
     
    “Here, take this one and beat it,” urged Hope, handing Kitty a small bag.
     
    “It’s all packed according to a system,” said Kitty helplessly. “And I thought it was so good, too. There’s underwear in one, skirts in another, blouses and sweaters in that big one.” She looked at the bag in her hand. “I forget what’s in this one.”
     
    “Is that the one with your toothbrush?” asked Roy.
     
    “It
could
be,” said Kitty, apparently not at all sure.
    “That’s the one we want,” said Roy, taking it from her. “Let’s go!”
     
    Kitty hesitated, looked longingly at the baggage she was going to have to abandon, then squirmed through the window and onto the ladder.
     
    Haley, Hope by his side, listened to the lovers’ conversation as they descended.
     
    “I got you a new kidney belt for the trip,” said Roy affectionately.
     
    “I think this is the bag with the hankies and the stockings,” said Kitty.
     
    Kitty and Roy, stumpy, grotesque, long-shadowed figures as seen by Haley and Hope from the bedroom window, were absorbed by the shadows of the barn, reappeared for a moment as they crossed the fence into the elm grove, and were lost from sight for good. Haley and Hope heard the roar and backfire of the motorcycle starting on the highway, then its even rumble, then hum, as it carried Roy and Kitty to joy everlasting.
     
    “Well, I never,” said Annie, filling the door with her breadth, the more impressive for being sheathed in an orange, daisy-spattered bathrobe. Haley’s heart pumped harder and faster as Annie scratched herself and blinked at them sleepily. “Well, I never,” she repeated at last. “What’s going on at this hour?”
     
    “Haley’s window wouldn’t open, and he asked me to help him get it unstuck,” said Hope.
     
    Annie’s gaze, move wakeful now, turned toward the window. Haley closed his eyes. “What’s that ladder and luggage doing there?” she demanded, taking a step forward. The drone of Roy’s motorcycle was still audible, and, when Haley opened his eyes for an instant, he saw Annie’s head cocked to one side, in an attitude of listening and incredulity. “She ran off with him, didn’t she?” she cried.
     
    “Hush!” hissed Hope, and the General stepped from the darkness of the hallway.
     
    “Kitty’s run off with Roy, and these two helped her,” said Annie, livid. “What’ll we do?”
     
    The General breathed heavily, his eyes moving about the small room — from Annie to the ladder and luggage, to Haley and Hope. “I’ll see you two downstairs in the sunroom in fifteen minutes, on the dot,” he said.
     
    “You’ll see,” said Annie, and she followed the General down the hall.
     
    Haley could hear the General dialing, then shouting into the telephone. “He always yells into the telephone,” said Hope. Haley sensed that some of her defiant poise was gone, that she was worried. “He’s talking to the police,” she said with awe. They lapsed into despondent silence until Hope’s watch indicated that the time for their hearing had come.
     
    The General was at his desk, his back to them. Annie sat on the edge of the couch, pouring two cups of coffee. She told them to sit down, and so