e in the hedge and fall on his knee and ask
her to marry him. Such a quaint idea for a child to have, wasn't it?"

"Yes," answered Wade thoughtfully. There was silence for a moment, and
then he glanced down and met Miss Mullett's gaze. He laughed ruefully.

"Do you think I look much like a prince?" he asked.

"Do looks matter," she said, gently, "if you _are_ the prince?"

"Perhaps not, but--I'm afraid I'm not."

Thereupon Miss Mullett did a most unmaidenly thing. She found Wade's
hand and pressed it with her cool, slim fingers.

"If I were a prince," she replied, "I'd be afraid of nothing."

There was just time to return the pressure of her hand and give a
grateful look into the kindly face, and then they were back with the
others on the porch.

That dinner was an immense success from every standpoint, Mrs. Prout
cooked like _cordon bleu_, Zephania, all starch and frills and
excitement, served like a--but no, she didn't; she served in a manner
quite her own, bringing on the oysters with a whispered aside to Wade
that she had "most forgot the ice," introducing the chicken with a
triumphant laugh, and standing off to observe the effect it made before
returning to the kitchen for the new potatoes, late asparagus, and
string-beans, so tiny that Mrs. Prout declared it was a sin and a shame
to pick them. There was a salad of lettuce and tomatoes, and the Doctor,
with grave mien, prepared the dressing, tasting it at every stage and
uttering congratulatory "Ha's!" And there were plenty of strawberries
and much cake--Zephania's very best maple-layer--and ice-cream from
Manchester, a trifle soft, but, as Eve maintained, all the better when
you put it over the berries. And--breathe it softly lest Eden Village
hear--there was champagne! Eve and Miss Mullett treated it with vast
respect, but the Doctor met it metaphorically with open arms, as one
welcomes an old friend, and, under its gentle influence, tossed aside
twenty years and made decorous, but desperate, love to Miss Mullett. And
then, to continue the pleasant formality of the occasion, the ladies
withdrew to the parlor, and Wade and the Doctor smoked two very stout
and very black cigars and sipped two tiny glasses of brandy.

In the parlor Miss Mullett turned to Eve in excited trepidation. "My
dear," she asked, in a thrilling whisper, "_do_ you think I took too
much champagne? My cheeks are positively burning!"

"I don't know," laughed Eve, "but the color is very