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CHAPTER IX
"MINE, MINE!"

FIDELIA attended her classes as usual that morning; Dave did not even return to the campus but went to the Delta Alpha house where he shut himself in his room for an hour. Then he went down town and surprised Mr. Snelgrove by appearing for work before noon.

He didn't do much; he could not concentrate on the important business of selling cars. He kept feeling his sensation of the cold sunrise alone with Fidelia Netley and the surprising delight of his play with her that they were in ice caves of fifty thousand years ago. She and he seemed to have separated themselves from other people by their walk together, as Titans, in their magic valley of ice and snow.

"She had a good time too!" he said to himself. "She had no more idea than I how long we were there."

Intermittently, he went aghast at himself: "What was I thinking of? What was the matter with me? Alice!"

Several times he started to go to her; several times he went into a telephone booth with a plan of calling her; but he waited until the hour, late in the afternoon, when he usually telephoned her. Then he did not ask for her but only gave the maid a message saying that he would be at the house at eight o'clock.

He did not understand himself that day. He was

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