spread a little table between them and
bring clam broth, which they ordered in a spirit of adventure and
curiosity and concealed from each other that they didn't like; to have
the young man who passed up and down with the candy, and whose mouth was
full of it, grow so friendly that he offered them toffee from his own
private supply at last when they had refused regretfully a dozen
suggestions to buy--"Have a bit," he said, thrusting it under their
noses. "As a gentleman to ladies--no pecuniary obligations--come on,
now;" all this was to the twins too interesting and delightful for
words.
They accepted the toffee in the spirit in which it was offered, and
since nobody can eat somebody's toffee without being pleasant in return,
intermittent amenities passed between them and the young man as he
journeyed up and down through the cars.
"First visit to the States?" he inquired, when with some reluctance, for
presently it appeared to the twins that the clam broth and the toffee
didn't seem to be liking each other now they had got together inside
them, and also for fear of hurting his feelings if they refused, they
took some more.
They nodded and smiled stickily.
"English, I guess."
They hesitated, covering their hesitation with the earnest working of
their toffee-filled jaws.
Then Anna-Felicitas, her cheek distorted, gave him the answer she had
given the captain of the _St. Luke,_ and said, "Practically."
"Ah," said the young man, turning this over in his mind, the r in
"practically" having rolled as no English or American r ever did; but
the conductor appearing in the doorway he continued on his way.
"It's evident," said Anna-Rose, speaking with difficulty, for her jaws
clave together because of the toffee, "that we're going to be asked that
the first thing every time a fresh person speaks to us. We'd better
decide what we're going to say, and practise saying it without
hesitation."
Anna-Felicitas made a sound of assent.
"That answer of yours about practically," continued Anna-Rose,
swallowing her bit of toffee by accident and for one moment afraid it
would stick somewhere and make her die, "causes first surprise, then
reflection, and then suspicion."
"But," said Anna-Felicitas after a pause during which she had
disentangled her jaws, "it's going to be difficult to say one is German
when America seems to be so very neutral and doesn't like Germans.
Besides, it's only in the eye of the law that we are
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