nk it from the saucer." Old Grannis had drawn up his armchair
for her.

"Oh, I shouldn't. This is--this is SO--You must think ill of me."
Suddenly she sat down, and resting her elbows on the table, hid her face
in her hands.

"Think ILL of you?" cried Old Grannis, "think ILL of you? Why, you don't
know--you have no idea--all these years--living so close to you, I--I--"
he paused suddenly. It seemed to him as if the beating of his heart was
choking him.

"I thought you were binding your books to-night," said Miss Baker,
suddenly, "and you looked tired. I thought you looked tired when I last
saw you, and a cup of tea, you know, it--that--that does you so much
good when you're tired. But you weren't binding books."

"No, no," returned Old Grannis, drawing up a chair and sitting down.
"No, I--the fact is, I've sold my apparatus; a firm of booksellers has
bought the rights of it."

"And aren't you going to bind books any more?" exclaimed the little
dressmaker, a shade of disappointment in her manner. "I thought you
always did about four o'clock. I used to hear you when I was making
tea."

It hardly seemed possible to Miss Baker that she was actually talking to
Old Grannis, that the two were really chatting together, face to face,
and without the dreadful embarrassment that used to overwhelm them both
when they met on the stairs. She had often dreamed of this, but had
always put it off to some far-distant day. It was to come gradually,
little by little, instead of, as now, abruptly and with no preparation.
That she should permit herself the indiscretion of actually intruding
herself into his room had never so much as occurred to her. Yet here she
was, IN HIS ROOM, and they were talking together, and little by little
her embarrassment was wearing away.

"Yes, yes, I always heard you when you were making tea," returned the
old Englishman; "I heard the tea things. Then I used to draw my chair
and my work-table close to the wall on my side, and sit there and work
while you drank your tea just on the other side; and I used to feel very
near to you then. I used to pass the whole evening that way."

"And, yes--yes--I did too," she answered. "I used to make tea just at
that time and sit there for a whole hour."

"And didn't you sit close to the partition on your side? Sometimes I
was sure of it. I could even fancy that I could hear your dress brushing
against the wall-paper close beside me. Didn't you sit close to the
par