power; perhaps that was
why his instinct had led him to elude it.

"That is really good of you, dear Morgan," she exclaimed, while her
eyes sparkled with honest delight.

Time was, perhaps, when seeing her thus he might have taken her hand.

"But don't look as if you already regretted making the promise," she
went on to protest. "I assure you it won't hurt a bit; not any more
than having your hair cut. By the way, why do you wear your hair so
short? Oughtn't a poet to have long, noble locks? They come out very
effectively in clay, those long, noble locks. I hope I'm not making
your bed too hard. Come now, Morgan, are you still so heavy-hearted?
What can I do to make you merry?"

"Take supper with me," he responded quickly, with an atoning flash of
briskness, the while he upbraided himself for oppressing her with his
dejection. "It will be a real Bohemian supper."

"How nice! I'm dying with hunger."

"In here, I mean," he explained. "I make my own supper."

"I know. We heard all about the inside of that cupboard."

"You won't mind sitting on the hard chair?"

"No. What's the menu?"

"Bread and cheese and----"

"Not beer, I hope," she interrupted hastily.

"And cocoa," he finished. "Do you mind keeping house here for two
minutes whilst I run down to get the milk. We have a dairy two doors
away."

He returned in a moment and she helped him to set out the table, for
which there was no cloth.

"This chair _is_ hard," she said again later, when she had been seated
on it some little time. "I must send you a soft chair, Morgan. I
haven't given you a birthday present this year."

"Indeed, you must not. Such luxuries are out of place here, and you
ought not to try to spoil me."

"But, dear Morgan, you've a lovely rug, and I'm sure you ought to have
a nice chair to keep it company. You've your guests to think of now. I
must have something to sit on when I come and so must your papa. I'm
willing to admit my suggestion was not quite a disinterested one; in
fact, I'm prepared to be perfectly unscrupulous so long as I carry my
point."

"I'd better yield before you get so far as that. Only, of course, the
chair shall be used exclusively for my visitors."

"Oh, you must sit on it sometimes, as well."

"Well, let us not quarrel about it."

"Of course we're not going to quarrel about it. We're going to be the
best of friends now, aren't we?"

"I never dared dream----" he began.

"Dreaming hasn't anything to d