d all this
information this morning when I gave you the flower,
where would you have pinned it?"

"Nobody has ever done so much for me as has Monsieur.
He leaped into the flood, risking his life to save mine.
I would be an ungrateful girl, then, if I did not think
more of him than of any other man; therefore, I would
have pinned your flower on the spot nearest my heart,"
Then, deftly, and before he could determine what her
supple arms and nimble little brown fingers were about,
she had disengaged the lily from her hair, and pinned it
upon her bosom. "There now, Monsieur, is it in the right
place?" and she looked at him with a glance exhibiting
the most curious commingling of innocence and coquetry.

"I cannot answer. I do not think that you understand me
yet. If the act of saving you from drowning were to
determine the place you should wear the rose, then the
head, as you first chose, was the proper spot, Do you
know what the word love means?"

"O, I could guess, perhaps, if I don't know. I have heard
a good deal about it, and Violette, who is desperately
fond of a handsome young Frenchman, has explained it so
fully to me, that I think I know. Yes, Monsieur, I _do_
know."

"Well, you little rogue, it takes one a long time to find
out whether you do or not. In fact I am not yet quite
satisfied on the point. However, let me suppose that you
do know what love is; the all-consuming sort, the kind
that sighs like the very furnace. Well, that part of the
statement is clear. Then, supposing that a flower is worn
over the heart only to express love, of the sort I
mentioned, for the donor, where would you, with full
knowledge of this fact, have pinned the flower that I
plucked for you this morning?"

"Since I do not understand the meaning of the word love
with very great clearness,--I think Monsieur has expressed
the doubt that I do understand it--I would not have known
where to pin the flower. I would not have worn it at all.
I would, Monsieur, have set it in a goblet, and taking
my stitching, would have gazed upon it all the day, and
prayed my guardian angel to give me some hint as to where
I ought to put it on."

"You little savage, you have eluded me again. Do you
remember me telling you that some day, if you found out
for me a couple of good flocks of turkeys, I would bring
you some coppers?"

"I do."

"Well, if you discovered a hundred flocks now, I would
not give you one." And then he leaned towards her