ytes till their
'usbands comes in; and in cyse madam'd feel lonely I'll leave the
door open to the back part of the 'ouse, and she'll 'ear me talkin' to
the boys."

The October evening being chilly he lit a fire. Drawing up in front of
it a small armchair, suited for a lady's use, he placed behind it a
table with an electric lamp. Letty smiled up at him. He had never seen
her smile before, and now that he did he made to himself another
comment of approval.

"You're awful good to me."

He reflected as to how he could bring home to her the grammatical
mistake.

"Madam finds me _horfly_ good, does she? P'rhaps that's because madam
don't know that 'er comin' to this 'ouse gratifies a tyste o' mine for
which I ain't never 'ad no gratificytion."

As he put a footstool to her feet he caught the question she so easily
transmitted by her eyes.

"P'raps madam can hunderstand that after doin' things all my life for
people as is used to 'em I've 'ad a kind o' cryvin' to do 'em for them
as 'aven't 'ad nothink, and who could enjoy them more. I told madam
yesterday I was somethink of a anarchist, and that's 'ow I am--wantin'
to give the poor a wee little bit of what the rich 'as to throw
awye."

Later he brought her an old red book, open at a page on which she
read, _The Little Mermaid_.

Her heart leaped. It was from this volume that Miss Pye had read to
the Prince when he was a child. She let her eyes run along the opening
words.

"Far out in the sea the water is as blue as the petals of the
cornflower, and clear as the purest glass."

She liked this sentence. It took her into a blue world. It was
curious, she thought, how much meaning there was in colors. If you
looked through red glass the world was angry; if through yellow, it
was lit with an extraordinary sun; if through blue, you had the
sensation of universal happiness. She supposed that that was why blue
flowers always made you feel that there was a want in life which ought
to be supplied--and wasn't.

She remembered a woman who had a farm near them in Canada, who grew
only blue flowers in her garden. The neighbors said she was crazy; but
she, Letty, had liked that garden better than all the gardens she
knew. She would go there and talk to that woman, and listen to what
she had to say of Nature's peculiar love of blue. The sea and sky were
loveliest when they were blue, and so were the birds. There were blue
stones, the woman said, precious stones, and other