fer; and so he stood
by while she measured out peas, and counted over artichokes, and tied up
bundles of mint and thyme, and stored up a pannier full of ruddy apples,
surmounting all with a gorgeous bouquet of richly perfumed flowers,
culled in all the careless profusion of that land of plenty. Nor was
this all. She impressed upon him how he was to extol the excellence
of this, and the beauty of that, to explain that the violets were true
Parmesans, and the dates such as only Onofrio knew how to produce.

Loyd laughed his own little quiet laugh when he heard of his friend's
mission, and his amusement was not lessened at seeing the half-awkward
and more than half-unwilling preparations Calvert made to fulfil it.

"Confound the woman!" said he, losing all patience; "she wanted to
charge me with all the bills and reckonings for the last three weeks, on
the pretext that her husband is but ill-skilled in figures, and that
it was a rare chance to find one like myself to undertake the office.
I have half a mind to throw the whole cargo overboard when I reach the
middle of the lake. I suppose a Nap. would clear all the cost."

"Oh, I'll not hear of such extravagance," said Loyd, demurely.

"I conclude I have a right to an act of personal folly, eh?" asked
Calvert, pettishly.

"Nothing of the kind. I drew up our contract with great care, and
especially on this very head, otherwise it would have been too offensive
a bargain for him who should have observed all the rigid injunctions of
its economy."

"It was a stupid arrangement from the first," said Calvert warmly. "Two
men yet never lived, who could say that each could bound his wants by
those of another. Not to say that an individual is not himself the same
each day of the week. I require this on Tuesday, which I didn't want on
Monday, and so on."

"You are talking of caprice as though it were necessity, Calvert."

"I don't want to discuss the matter like a special pleader, and outside
the margin of our conjoint expenses I mean to be as wasteful as I
please."

"As the contract is only during pleasure, it can never be difficult to
observe it."

"Yes, very true. You have arrived at my meaning by another road. When
was it we last replenished the bag?"

"A little more than a week ago."

"So that there is about a fortnight yet to run?"

"About that."

Calvert stood in thought for a few seconds, and then, as if having
changed the purpose he was meditating, turned su