Well, wait a little while.... And you really mean you want
to keep on boardin' here--with me, with us?"

"Yes, if--if you will be so very kind as to permit me to do so. If you
will be so good."

"Good! To what? My soul and body!"

"No--ah--good to mine," said Galusha.

CHAPTER VI

It was not settled that evening. Martha declared she must have at least
a few hours in which to think it over and Galusha, of course, agreed.

"It won't take too long," she said. "Naturally, you want to know so that
you can make your plans."

Galusha smiled. "Please take as much time as you need, Miss Phipps," he
urged. "If you permit me to remain here while you are--ah--endeavoring
to reach a decision I shall be quite satisfied, really. In that case,
you know, I should be willing to wait for the decision until spring.
Dear me, yes--even until summer."

Martha laughed and declared she should decide long before that. "I think
breakfast time to-morrow will settle it," she added.

It did. After breakfast she informed him that he might stay if he
wished.

"Though WHY you want to I can't understand," she said. "And of course it
is part of the agreement that you'll feel free to give it up and go any
time you wish; as soon as you begin to get tired of the place and us, I
mean."

He beamed satisfaction. "I shall not be the one to tire first," he
declared. Then he added, earnestly, "Of course, Miss Phipps, you will
be perfectly frank and tell me at once if you change YOUR mind. And if I
should become a--ah--well, a sort of nuisance, be irregular at meals, or
noisy or--What is it? I beg your pardon?"

She had laughed outright. She was still smiling when she apologized.

"Please excuse me for laughin', Mr. Bangs," she said, "but don't you
think yourself that that is funny? The idea of your bein' noisy, I
mean."

He stroked his chin.

"We-ll," he admitted, "perhaps it is. But sometimes I am quite
boisterous, really I am. I remember once, years ago, I was in an old
cemetery in New Hampshire and I suddenly discovered an inscription which
pleased me VERY much. MOST quaint and unusual it was--dear me, yes. And
quite unconsciously I burst into a shout--a cheer, as one may say. The
old sexton was quite scandalized and warned me not to do it again. He
said it would disturb people. I don't know whom he meant, there were no
living people to be disturbed."

The question of terms was the cause of a supplementary discussion. Mr.
Bangs ins