e tray from her hands.

Laughing, excited, and flattered, the little woman followed him to the
table.

'It was really too much! Monsieur was too kind!'

'On the contrary! It was not meant that woman should wait upon man!
Madame had accomplished her share in making this most excellent coffee!'

He sniffed at the steaming pot with the air of a connoisseur.

Madame laughed again, this time self-consciously. 'Well, her coffee had
been spoken of before now! Monsieur, her husband, who was quite a
_gourmet_--'

'Always declared there was no such coffee in all Paris! Was not that
so?'

Madame's laugh was now a gurgle of delight. 'How clever of monsieur!
Yes, it was what he said.'

'Of course it was! And now, how was this good husband? And how was life
treating them both?' He put the questions with deep solicitude as he
poured out the coffee, and madame, standing by the table and smoothing
her apron, grew serious, and before she was aware was pouring forth the
grievance that at the moment was darkening her existence--the
disappointment that had befallen the Maison Gustav when her
father-in-law, a market gardener near Issy, who had a nice little sum of
money laid by, had married again at the age of sixty-four.

'Could monsieur conceive anything more grotesque? An old man of
sixty-four marrying a young woman of twenty! Of course there would be a
child!' Her shoulders went up, her hands went out in expressive gesture.
'And her little Leon would be cheated of his grandfather's money by this
creature who--'

At this juncture the sound of a kettle boiling over brought the story to
an abrupt end, and madame flew off, leaving her guests to a not
unwelcome solitude.

As her black skirt whisked round the corner of the door the boy looked
at his companion.

"You come here often," he said.

The other laughed. "I've never set foot in the place before. It's a way
we Irish have of putting our fingers into other people's pies! Some call
it intrusion"--he glanced quizzically at the boy--"but these good
creatures understand it. They're more human than the Saxon or the--"
Again a glint of humor crossed his face, as he paused on his unfinished
sentence.

The boy reddened and impulsively leaned across the table.

"You have taught me something, monsieur," he said, shyly, "and I have
much to learn."

The other returned the glance seriously, intently. "What is it I have
taught you?"

"That in the smaller ways of life it is not p