you into bed in your little room above the shop, Pete?
No, you were too little."

"Of course, I remember," the boy replied. "The ankle's fine now, Bella.
Let up. I can't stand that rubbing. Let me stick the foot up on another
chair. There--that's great. It doesn't hurt near so bad now. I remember
Hugh's bookshop; yes, I do--honest! I remember sitting on the ladder and
listening to him talk to the students when they came in. He always was
a gorgeous talker, Bella. They used to stand around and listen to
his yarns like kids to a fairy story. Just the same as you and I do
now--when we can get him into a good humor. But, you know, he used to
like strangers best--to talk to, I mean."

Bella assented, bitterly. She had begun to clear the table of its almost
untouched meal. "Because he could put it over better with a stranger. It
isn't the _truth_ Hugh likes--about himself, or others."

Pete had begun to whittle a piece of wood. He was a charming figure,
slouching down in his chair, slim and graceful, his shapely golden
head ruffled, his chin pressed against his chest. His expression
was indescribably sweet and boyish, the shadow of anxiety and pain
accentuating a wistful if determined cheerfulness. He was deliberately
entertaining Bella, diverting her mind from its agony of apprehension.
She saw through him, but like a sick child she took the entertainment
languidly.

"Now, _you're_ too dead bent on the truth, Bella. You know you are.
You're a regular bear for the truth."

"I can't see anything else," she said gloomily. "Things are just so to
me--no blinking them."

He put his head a little to one side and contemplated her. "What do you
see when you look into the water-bucket, Bella?"

"The water-bucket?" She flushed. "Just because you caught me prinking
that once!"

"Well, if you had a mirror, what would you see in it, then?"

"An ugly old woman, Pete."

"There! Your mind's just the wrong-side-out of Hugh's. He won't see
himself ugly, and you won't see yourself pretty. I'm the only sane
fellow in this house."

"And you never in your life saw a pretty woman to remember her. Besides,
you're too young." She said it with a tart sweetness and vanished into
the kitchen.

With her departure Pete's whittling ceased, his hands fell slack and he
began to stare out through the snow-walled window. His anxiety for Hugh
slipped imperceptibly into a vague pondering over his own youthfulness.
That's what those two were alwa