let's play the game. May
I make toast?"

"You may," she said.

In a little while, some one came to call on Godmother who took the
caller into the library; and the toast-making went on undisturbed.

Whoever he was, he seemed to know something about camp-fires; and
squatting on the rug before the glowing grate, toasting bread, reminded
him of things he had heard strange men tell, as the intimacy of the
night fire in the wilderness brought their stories out. It was
fascinating talk, and Mary Alice listened enthralled.

"I didn't know I had that much talk in me," he laughed, a little
confusedly, as he rose to go. "It must be the surroundings that are
responsible--and the game."

Godmother, whose caller was gone, asked him to stay to dinner.

"I wish I could!" he said wistfully, noting in the distance the cozy
dinner table set for two. "If you could only know where I must dine
instead!"

"You seem to dread it," said Mary Alice.

"I do," he answered.

She looked at Godmother. "I wish we could tell him the Secret," she
suggested shyly, "it might help."

Godmother looked very thoughtful, as if gravely considering. "Not
yet," she decided, shaking her head; "it's too soon."

"I think so too," he said. "I'm afraid you might lose interest in me
after you had told me. I'd rather wait."

The next day was Sunday. He had engagements for lunch and dinner, but
he asked if he might slip in again for tea; he was leaving town Monday.

So they had another beautiful hour, at what Godmother loved to speak of
as "candle-lightin' time," and while Mary Alice was in the kitchen
cutting bread to toast, Godmother and her guest made notes in tiny
note-books.

"There!" she said, when she had written the Gramercy Park address in
his book. "Anything you send here will always reach her, wherever she
is."

"And any answer she may care to make to me, if you'll address it to me
there," handing back her book to her, "will always reach me, wherever I
may be."

"It is a splendid game," he said when he was going, "and I'm glad you
let me play. If more people played this game, I'd find the world a lot
pleasanter place to live in."

"When you know the Secret you can show other people how to play," Mary
Alice suggested.

"That's so," he said. "Well, I shan't let you forget you are to tell
it to me."

VIII

LEARNING TO BE BRAVE AND SWEET

Godmother's charming drawing-room seemed intolerably empty when he had
gon