s she could do sweetly. He
would even not mind taking medicine, really nasty medicine, if it were
Rose Arbuthnot bending over him with the dose.

She felt his bright blue eyes, the brighter because he was so
sunburnt, fixed on her with a twinkle in them, and smiling asked him
what he was thinking about.

But he couldn't very well tell her that, he said; and added,
"Some day."

"Trouble, trouble," thought Mr. Wilkins at this, again mentally
rubbing his hands. "Well, I'm their man."

"I'm sure," said Mrs. Fisher benignly, "you have no thoughts we
may not hear."

"I'm sure," said Briggs, "I would be telling you every one of my
secrets in a week."

"You would be telling somebody very safe, then," said Mrs. Fisher
benevolently--just such a son would she have liked to have had. "And
in return," she went on, "I daresay I would tell you mine."

"Ah no," said Mr. Wilkins, adapting himself to this tone of easy
badinage, "I must protest. I really must. I have a prior claim, I am
the older friend. I have known Mrs. Fisher ten days, and you, Briggs,
have not yet known her one. I assert my right to be told her secrets
first. That is," he added, bowing gallantly, "if she has any--which I
beg leave to doubt."

"Oh, haven't I!" exclaimed Mrs. Fisher, thinking of those green
leaves. That she should exclaim at all was surprising, but that she
should do it with gaiety was miraculous. Rose could only watch her in
wonder.

"Then I shall worm them out," said Briggs with equal gaiety.

"They won't need much worming out," said Mrs. Fisher. "My
difficulty is to keep them from bursting out."

It might have been Lotty talking. Mr. Wilkins adjusted the
single eyeglass he carried with him for occasions like this, and
examined Mrs. Fisher carefully. Rose looked on, unable not to smile
too since Mrs. Fisher seemed so much amused, though Rose did not quite
know why, and her smile was a little uncertain, for Mrs. Fisher amused
was a new sight, not without its awe-inspiring aspects, and had to be
got accustomed to.

What Mrs. Fisher was thinking was how much surprised they would
be if she told them of her very odd and exciting sensation of going to
come out all over buds. They would think she was an extremely silly
old woman, and so would she have thought as lately as two days ago; but
the bud idea was becoming familiar to her, she was more apprivoisee
now, as dear Matthew Arnold used to say, and though it would
undoubtedl