e to go about helping you to make love to people."

Lawrence laughed. "Very good," said he. "I have promised to ask nothing
more of that sort. Let us shake hands on it."

He stretched his hand from the window, and Miss Annie withdrew from the
folds of her waterproof a very soft and white little hand, and put it
into his. "And now I must be off," she said. "Are you certain you don't
want anything from the store at Howlett's?"

"Surely, you are not going as far as that," he said.

"Not if you don't want anything," she answered. "Have you tobacco enough
to last through your imprisonment? They keep it."

"Now, miss," said Lawrence; "do you want to make me angry by supposing I
would smoke any tobacco that they sell in that country store?"

"It ought to be better than any other," said Miss Annie. "They grow it
in the fields all about here, and the storekeepers can get it perfectly
fresh and pure, and a great deal better for you, no doubt, than the
stuff they manufacture in the cities."

"When you learn to smoke," said Lawrence, "your opinion concerning
tobacco will be more valuable."

"Thank you," she said, "and I will wait till then before I give you any
more of it. Good morning." And away she went.

Lawrence shut down the window, and hopped back to the fire. "There is my
last chance gone," said he to himself. "I suppose I may as well take old
Mrs Keswick's advice, and wait for fair weather. But, even then, who can
say what sort of sky Roberta March will show?" And, not being able to
answer this question, he put two fresh sticks on the fire, and then
sedately sat and watched their gradual annihilation. As for Miss Annie,
she took her walk, and stepped along the road as lightly and blithely as
if the skies had been blue, and the sun shining; and almost before she
knew it, she had reached the store at Howlett's. Ascending the high
steps to the porch, quite deserted on this damp, unpleasant morning, she
entered the store, the proprietor of which immediately jumped up from
the mackerel kit at the extreme end of the room, where he had been
sitting in converse with some of his neighbors, and hurried behind the
counter.

"Have you any tea," said Miss Annie, "better than the kind which you
usually sell to Mrs Keswick?"

"No, ma'am," said he. "We send her the very best tea we have."

"I am not finding fault with it," she said, "but I thought you might
have some extra kind, more expensive than people usually buy for commo