ng girl appeared on the
threshold, standing with one hand resting on the inner knob; the other
touching the pocket of her apron, in which was a ball of yarn stuck
through with two needles.

She was slim and red-haired and slightly freckled, and her mouth was
perhaps a shade large, and it curled slightly at the corners; and her
eyes were quite perfectly made, except that one was hazel-brown and the
other hazel-grey.

Hat in hand, Brown bowed; and then she did a thing which interested him;
she lifted the edges of her apron between slender white thumbs and
forefingers and dropped him the prettiest courtesy he had ever seen off
the stage.

"I came to inquire," he said, "whether you ever take summer boarders."

"What are boarders?" she asked. "I never heard of them except in naval
battles."

"Thank heaven," he thought; "this is remote, all right; and I have
discovered pristine innocence in the nest."

"Modern boarders," he explained politely, "are unpleasant people who come
from the city to enjoy the country, and who, having no real homes, pay
farmers to lodge and feed them for a few days of vacation and dyspepsia."

"You mean is this a tavern?" she asked, unsmiling.

"No, I don't. I mean, will you let me live here a little while as though
I were a guest, and then permit me to settle my reckoning in accordance
with your own views upon the subject?"

She hesitated as though perplexed.

"Suppose you ask your father or mother," he suggested.

"They are absent."

"Will they return this morning?"

"I don't know exactly when they expect to return."

"Well, couldn't you assume the responsibility?" he asked, smiling.

She looked at him for a few moments, and it seemed to him as though, in
the fearless gravity of her regard, somehow, somewhere, perhaps in the
curled corners of her lips, perhaps in her pretty and unusual eyes, there
lurked a little demon of laughter. Yet it could not be so; there were
only serenity and a child's direct sweetness in the gaze.

"What is your name?" she asked.

"John Brown 4th."

"Mine is Elizabeth Tennant. Where do you live?"

"In--New York," he admitted, watching her furtively.

"I was there once--at a ball--many years ago," she observed.

"Not _very_ many years ago, I imagine," he said, smiling at her youthful
reminiscence.

"Many, many years ago," she said thoughtfully. "I shall go again some
day."

"Of course," he murmured politely, "it's a thing to do and get done--lik