r want to say anything
bad about me, you may hope to keep it a secret, but I warn you that I
can understand French to some extent."

"I shall not say anything bad," she returned naively. Adding, "Why, I
don't know anything bad."

"Oh, Miss Recompense, isn't it nice to be perfect in someone's eyes?" he
laughed.

"Wait until she has known you several years."

"But you have known me several years," appealingly.

"It is best to begin with an unbiased opinion."

"I shall get Betty to speak a good word for me. You have confidence in
Betty?"

"I love Betty," Doris said simply.

"And Boston. That begins with a B too. You must love Boston, and the
State of Massachusetts, and the whole United States. And if there comes
another war you must be true to the flag and the country. No skipping
off to England, mind."

"I couldn't skip across the whole Atlantic."

"Then you would have to stay. Which is the nicest, Sudbury Street or
this?"

"Cary, you have teased enough," said his father.

"I think the out-of-doors of this will be the prettiest in the summer,"
replied Doris gravely, "and when I came off the ship I thought the
indoors in Sudbury Street just delightful. There was such a splendid
fire, and everybody was so kind."

Cary glanced up at his father, who gave his soft half-smile.

"You were a brave little girl not to be homesick."

"I did want to see Miss Arabella, and the pony. I had such a darling
pony."

"Why, you can have a pony next summer," said Uncle Win. "I am very fond
of riding."

Doris' face was filled with speechless delight.

After supper they sat round the fire and Cary asked her about the Old
Boston. She had very good descriptive powers. Her life had been so
circumscribed there that it had deepened impressions, and the young
fellow listened quite surprised. Like his father he had known very
little about girls in their childhood. She was so quaintly pretty, too,
with the bow of dark ribbon high up on her head, amid the waving light
hair.

Some time after Uncle Winthrop said:

"Doris, I have a letter from Miss Arabella. Would you not like to come
in the study and read it?"

"Oh, yes," and she sprang up with the lightness of a bird.

He had cut around the great black seal. Sometime Doris might be glad to
have the letter intact. There were no envelopes then besides those used
for state purposes.

"Dear and Respected Sir," it began in the formal, old-fashioned manner.
She had been rejoice