ke it,"--said Faith honestly. "But in great things I will
not again, Endecott."

"Take care you get the right measure for things," said Mr. Linden
smiling. "Frankness makes a deliciously plain way for one's feet."

Faith looked sober again, at the idea that she should have failed in
frankness. Then put her hand in his and looked smiling up at him.

"There is one thing I will not keep from you any longer,"--she said.

"What is that?--the seal of this little compact of plain speaking?"

"Strawberries!"--

"Only another style of nomenclature,"--said Mr. Linden.

"You must take the trouble to go into the other room for them."

And light-heartedly Faith preceded him into the other room, where the
dinner was ready. A very simple dinner, but Mrs. Derrick would not have
had anything less than a roast chicken for Mr. Linden, and the lettuce
and potatoes did very well for a summer day; and Faith's waiting on
table made it only more pleasant. Talk flowed all the while; of a
thousand and one things; for Mrs. Derrick's sympathies had a wider
range since Mr. Linden had been in Germany. Indeed the talk was
principally between those two. It was a remarkably long dinner, without
multiplication of courses--there was so much to say! Many were the
pleasant things swallowed with the strawberries. It is said hunger is
the best sauce; it's not true; happiness is a better.

And then--what came then? Truly, the same over again--looking and
talking, without the strawberries. Which were not wanted; especially
when Faith was dressed out with roses, as she was presently after
dinner. As she _would_ wash the tumblers and spoons in the dining-room,
spite of all Mrs. Derrick could say, so Mr. Linden would stay there
too; not indeed to do anything but look on, and bestow the roses as
aforesaid. Talking to her sometimes in English, sometimes in French,
with preliminary instructions in German.

"Mignonette," he said, "I have three letters for you to read."

"Letters, Endecott!--Who has written to me?"

"Through me--three regions of country."

"What do you mean?"

Just as she spoke the words, Faith paused and set down the tumbler she
was wiping. Her ears had caught the sound of a modest knock at the
front door. She looked at Mr. Linden.

"Stay here, Endy--please!" she said as she threw down her towel and ran
off. But Faith's hope of a chance was disappointed. She ushered
somebody into the sitting-room and came back gravely and flushed to