d met you; that's what I
principally recall."

"And don't you remember what I told you I wanted to do? I wanted to go
out to Cambridge and see Miss Tarrant. Thanks to the information that
you were so good as to give me, I was able to do so."

"Yes, she gave me quite a little description of your visit," said Miss
Birdseye, with a smile and a vague sound in her throat--a sort of
pensive, private reference to the idea of laughter--of which Ransom
never learned the exact significance, though he retained for a long time
afterwards a kindly memory of the old lady's manner at the moment.

"I don't know how much she enjoyed it, but it was an immense pleasure to
me; so great a one that, as you see, I have come to call upon her
again."

"Then, I presume, she _has_ shaken you?"

"She has shaken me tremendously!" said Ransom, laughing.

"Well, you'll be a great addition," Miss Birdseye returned. "And this
time your visit is also for Miss Chancellor?"

"That depends on whether she will receive me."

"Well, if she knows you are shaken, that will go a great way," said Miss
Birdseye, a little musingly, as if even to her unsophisticated mind it
had been manifested that one's relations with Miss Chancellor might be
ticklish. "But she can't receive you now--can she?--because she's out.
She has gone to the post office for the Boston letters, and they get so
many every day that she had to take Verena with her to help her carry
them home. One of them wanted to stay with me, because Doctor Prance has
gone fishing, but I said I presumed I could be left alone for about
seven minutes. I know how they love to be together; it seems as if one
_couldn't_ go out without the other. That's what they came down here
for, because it's quiet, and it didn't look as if there was any one else
they would be much drawn to. So it would be a pity for me to come down
after them just to spoil it!"

"I am afraid I shall spoil it, Miss Birdseye."

"Oh, well, a gentleman," murmured the ancient woman.

"Yes, what can you expect of a gentleman? I certainly shall spoil it if
I can."

"You had better go fishing with Doctor Prance," said Miss Birdseye, with
a serenity which showed that she was far from measuring the sinister
quality of the announcement he had just made.

"I shan't object to that at all. The days here must be very long--very
full of hours. Have you got the doctor with you?" Ransom inquired, as if
he knew nothing at all about her.

"Yes, Mi