the first word of her appeal, put up his fishing-rod,
slung his basket, in which there were only a couple of fish, on his
back, shouldered her books, and turned and walked back with her, as if
it was he who was seeking her company and not she his. How else was he
to make the little girl who might have been his pet sister see that
there was any harm in the irregular course she had pursued? How,
otherwise, was she to understand that she was big enough--nearly a head
taller than her sister Dora--and old enough with her seventeen years,
though she was still the child of the family, to render it indecorous
for her to come, out of her own head, without the knowledge of anybody,
to have a private interview with him on the banks of the Dewes?

"'Robinson's' is highly honoured," he told her, in a tone partly
bantering, partly serious, and wholly friendly, "and I too should, and
do, thank you for the trust in me which your proposal implies, but I am
afraid it would not do, Miss May."

May's fair young face fell.

"Oh! I am so sorry," she said simply; "but, please, may I know why you
have Phyllis and will not have me?"

"The case is altogether different. Mrs. Carey made up her mind that Miss
Phyllis should go into a shop--mine or another's. Phyllis was not happy
at home; she is not a clever, studious girl, though she is your friend
and is very nice--of course all young ladies are nice. There is no
comparison between you and her."

"But why shouldn't clever people go and work in shops?" persisted May,
in her half-childish way--"not that I mean I am clever; that would be
too conceited. But I am sure it would be a great deal better for shops
if they had the very cleverest people to work in them."

"It depends on the kind of cleverness," he told her. "With regard to one
sort you are right, of course; with respect to another it would not
answer, and it would be horrible waste."

She opened her brown eyes wide. "Why do you waste your abilities and
college education?" she asked him naively--"not that everybody calls it
a waste; some people say 'Robinson's' is the high-class shop it is,
because its masters have not only been respectable people, they have
always been educated men and gentlemen."

"I ought to say for myself and my predecessors that I am much obliged to
'some people' for acknowledging that," he remarked coolly.

"I beg your pardon, Mr. Robinson," said May humbly. "I know I have been
very rude--I am constantly sayin