"Tell him to wait." Ann sat down suddenly. "Tell him I"m not going to that dance."

"What?" said her mother, in the door.

Cecy snapped back into attention. It had been a fatal relaxing, a fatal moment of leaving Ann"s body for only an instant. She had heard the distant sound of horses" hoofs and the rig rambling through moonlit spring country. For a second she thought, I"ll go find Tom and sit in his head and see what it"s like to be in a man of twenty-two on a night like this. And so she had started quickly across a heather field, but now, like a bird to a cage, flew back and rustled and beat about in Ann Leary"s head.

"Tell him to go away!"

"Ann!" Cecy settled down and spread her thoughts.

But Ann had the bit in her mouth now. "No, no, I hate him!"

I shouldn"t have left – even for a moment. Cecy poured her mind into the hands of the young girl, into the heart, into the head, softly, softly. Stand up, she thought.

Ann stood.

Put on your coat!

Ann put on her coat.

Now, march!

No! thought Ann Leary.

March!

"Ann," said her mother, "don"t keep Tom waiting another minute. You get on out there now and no nonsense. What"s come over you?"

"Nothing, Mother. Good night. We"ll be home late."

Ann and Cecy ran together into the spring evening.