! we walked into the reading-room as friendly as could be.

"That was last Wednesday, and twice since then we've happened to
take lunch at the same table, and have had a regular visit. It
tickles me to see how scared she is yet of the idea that she's
actually talking to a real man that hasn't been introduced to her,
but I find her awfully interesting, she's so different."

III

During the week that followed this letter, matters progressed rapidly.
The two Anglo-Saxons took lunch together every day, and by Friday the
relations between them were such that, as they pushed back their
chairs, Harrison said: "Excuse me, Miss Midland, for seeming to dictate
to you _all_ the time, but why in the world don't you go out after
lunch and take a half-hour's walk as I do? It'd be a lot better for
your health."

The English girl looked at him with the expression for which he had as
yet found no word more adequately descriptive than his vague "queer."
"I haven't exactly the habit of walking about Paris streets alone, you
know," she said.

"Oh, yes, to be sure," returned the American. "I remember hearing that
young ladies can't do that here the way they do back home. But that's
easy fixed. You won't be out in the streets, and you won't be alone, if
you come out with me in the little park opposite. Come on! It's the
first spring day."

Miss Midland dropped her arms with a gesture of helpless wonder. "Well,
_really_!" she exclaimed. "_Do_ you think that so much better?" But
she rose and prepared to follow him, as if her protest could not stand
before the kindly earnestness of his manner. "There!" he said, after he
had guided her across the street into the tiny green square where in
the sudden spring warmth, the chestnut buds were already swollen and
showing lines of green. "To answer your question, I think it not only
better, but absolutely all right--O.K!"

They were sitting on a bench at one side of the fountain, whose
tinkling splash filled the momentary silence before she answered, "I
can't make it all out--" she smiled at him--"but I think you are right
in saying that it is all O.K." He laughed, and stretched out his long
legs comfortably. "You've got the idea. That's the way to get the good
of traveling and seeing other kinds of folks. You learn my queer slang
words, and I'll learn yours."

Miss Midland stared again, and she cried out, "_My_ queer slang words!
What can you mean?"

He rattled off a g