They have become very dear to me, those
new ideals, Miss Roberta, though they've had only a short time to grow.
It hurts to have you treat me as if you thought me incapable of them."

"I'm sorry," she said simply, and her hands gave his a little quick
pressure which meant apology and regret. His heart warmed a very little,
for he had been sure she was capable of great generosity if appealed to
in the right way. But justice and generosity were not all he craved, and
he could see quite clearly that they were all he was likely to get from
her as yet.

"You think," he said, pursuing his advantage, "we know too little of
each other to be even friends. You are confident my tastes and pleasures
are entirely different from yours; especially that my notions of real
work are so different that we could never measure things with the same
footrule."

He looked down at her searchingly.

She nodded. "Something like that," she admitted. "But that doesn't mean
that either tastes or notions in either case are necessarily unworthy,
only that they are different."

"I wonder if they are? What if we should try to find out? I'm going to
stick pretty closely to Eastman this winter, but of course I shall be in
town more or less. May I come to see you, now and then, if I promise not
to become bothersome?"

It was her turn to look up searchingly at him. If he had expected the
usual answer to such a request, he began, before she spoke, to realize
that it was by no means a foregone conclusion that he should receive
usual answers from her to any questioning whatsoever. But her reply
surprised him more than he had ever been surprised by any girl in his
life.

"Mr. Kendrick," said she slowly, "I wish that you need not see me again
till--suppose we say Midsummer Day,[A] the twenty-fourth of June, you
know."

[Footnote A: Midsummer comes at the time of the summer solstice, about
June 21st, but Midsummer Day, the Feast of St. John the Baptist, is the
24th of June.]

He stared at her. "If you put it that way," he began stiffly, "you
certainly need not--"

"But I didn't put it that way. I said I wished that you need not see me.
That is quite different from wishing I need not see you. I don't mind
seeing you in the least--"

"That's good of you!"

"Don't be angry. I'm going to be quite frank with you--"

"I'm prepared for that. I can't remember that you've ever been anything
else."

"Please listen to me, Mr. Kendrick. When I say that I