't get to do anything like this very often--only when I come
here," he said, apologizing for accepting his turn when it came.

"Don't you live at home?" asked Mary Alice.

"Well, no," he answered, "I'd hardly call what I do 'living at home.'"

There was something about the way he said it that made Mary Alice feel
sorry for him; but she didn't like to ask any more questions.

They had a delightful time. Mary Alice had never met a man she enjoyed
so much. He liked to "play" as much as Godmother did, and they talked
most confidentially about their likes and dislikes, many of which
seemed to be mutual. Mary Alice admitted to him how she disliked to
meet strangers, and he admitted to her that he felt the very same way.

Godmother tarried and tarried, and at six o'clock the gentleman said he
must go.

"Oh, dear!" sighed Mary Alice. "I'm sorry! I'm having such a nice
time."

"So am I," he echoed gallantly, "but I'm hoping you will ask me again."

"Indeed I will!" she cried. "We seem to--to get on together
beautifully."

"We do," he agreed, "and if it's a rare experience for you, I don't
mind telling you it is for me too."

He couldn't have been gone more than ten minutes when Godmother came in.

"That gentleman called," Mary Alice told her. "He's just gone. We had
a lovely time."

"I know," said Godmother, "I met him down-stairs and we've been
chatting. He says he doesn't know when he's spent a pleasanter hour."

"Poor man!" murmured Mary Alice, "he seems to be a lonely body."

"He is," said Godmother. "He likes to come in here, once in a while,
for a cup of tea and an hour's chat. And I'm always glad to have him."

"I should think so!" agreed Mary Alice. "He ate nearly a whole plate
of toast."

Godmother laughed so heartily that Mary Alice was a little mystified.
She didn't see the joke in being hungry. She didn't even see it when
Godmother told her who the man was.

"Not really?" gasped Mary Alice. Godmother nodded. "Why, he told me
him_self_----!" Mary Alice began; and then stopped to put two and two
together. It was all very astounding, but there was no reason why what
he had told her and what Godmother said might not both be true.

"If I had _known_!" she said, sinking down, weak in the knees, into the
nearest chair.

"That was what gave him his happy hour," said Godmother. "You didn't
know! It is so hard for him to get away from people who know--to find
people who are able to forg