e Dictator said, and he
felt what he said. So the carriage was sent on, and Ericson and Helena
walked slowly, and for a while silently, on in the direction of the
town.

'I have not been only seeing after my poor,' she said, 'I have been
doing a little shopping.'

'Shopping here! What on earth can _you_ want to buy in this little
place?'

'Well, I persuaded papa into occupying this house here every year, and I
very soon found out that you get terribly unpopular if you don't buy
something in the town. So I buy all I can in the town.'

'But what do you buy?'

'Oh, well, wine, and tongues, and hams, and gloves.'

'But the wine?'

'I believe some of it is not so awfully bad. Anyhow, one need not drink
it. Only the trouble is that I was in the other day at the one only wine
merchant's, and while I was ordering something I heard a lady ask for
two bottles of some particular claret, and the proprietor called out:
"Very sorry, madam, but Sir Rupert Langley carried away all I had left
of that very claret, didn't he, William?" And William responded stoutly,
and I dare say quite truly, "Oh yes, madam; Sir Rupert, 'e 'as carried
all that off." Now _I_ was Sir Rupert.'

'Yes, I dare say you were. He never knew?'

'Oh, no; my dodges to make him popular would not interest him one little
bit. He goes in for charity and all that, and doing real good to
deserving poor; but he doesn't care a straw about popularity. Now _I_
do.'

'I don't believe you do in the least,' Ericson said, looking fixedly at
her. Very handsome she showed, with the west wind blowing back her hair,
and a certain gleam of excitement in her eyes, as if she were boldly
talking of something to drive away all thought or possibility of talk
about something else.

'Oh, not about myself, of course! But I want papa to be popular here and
everywhere else. Do you know--it is very funny--the first day I came
down here--this time--I went into one of the shops to give some orders,
and the man, when he had written them down--he hadn't asked my name
before--he said, "You _are_ Sir Rupert Langley, ain't you, miss?" and I
said, without ever thinking over the question, "Oh, yes, of course I
am." It was all right. We each meant what we said, and we conveyed our
ideas quite satisfactorily. He didn't fancy that "Miss" was passing off
for her father, and I didn't suppose that he thought anything of the
kind. So it was all right, but it was very amusing, I thought.'

She w