“Taffy is a Welshman, Taffy is a thief
   Flaunting as a Yankee man; that’s my belief.”

Laura couldn’t help joining in this laugh, Kitty was so droll; but the laugh died out in the next breath, as she said,—­

“Now, Kitty, don’t go and talk like this to the other girls; don’t—­”

“Laura, how did it ever come about that the Bodn invited you to tea?” interrupted Kitty.

“It came about as naturally as this:  One day I was going along Boylston Street, and just as I got to the public library I met Esther coming out with her arms full of books.  I joined her, and insisted upon carrying some of the books for her; and after a little hesitation she accepted my offer, and led the way across the Common to the opposite gateway upon Charles Street.  Here she stopped, and held out one hand for the books, and said, ‘It was so kind of you to help me.  Thank you very much.’

“‘But I’m not going to leave you here,’ I said; ’I’ll walk home with you.’  ‘But it’s a long walk to where I live,’ she answered.  I told her I didn’t think anything of a long walk, and insisted on going further with her.  I felt sorry, however, a minute after, for I saw that I had made a mistake,—­that she didn’t want me to go with her; but I didn’t know how to turn back at once then, as she had started up briskly at my insistence with another ‘Thank you.’  But when we turned into Cambridge Street, I began to understand why she didn’t want me,—­she felt sensitive and afraid of my criticism; and I don’t wonder—­”

“Nor I, either,” struck in Kitty, in a flippant tone.

“I should have felt sensitive,” went on Laura, pityingly, “and I was so sorry for her; but I was determined to keep on then, and seem to take no notice, and somehow make her understand that it made no difference to me where she lived.  I felt sorrier and sorrier for her, though, as she went on down Cambridge Street, past all those liquor and provision and second-hand furniture shops, with the tenements over them, and I was so thankful for her when she turned out of all this, and we crossed over and went into a quiet old street, and came out upon the pretty grounds of the Massachusetts Hospital; and as soon as I saw these grounds, I said, ‘Oh, how pretty!’ and then we turned again, and it was into the street opposite the hospital.  It was almost as quiet as the country there.  There were no shops at all, and the houses, though they looked old, were in very good repair, and some of them had been freshly painted, and had little grass plots beside them; and it was before one of these that Esther stopped, and then she said, ’If we had come over the hill, the way would have been pleasanter,’ and I said just what I felt,—­that I thought it was very pleasant, anyway, when you got there, and that the sunset must be beautiful from the windows.  She was taking the books from me as I said this, and she looked up at me for a second, as if she were studying me, and then she asked me if I would like to come in some bright day, and see her and the sunsets,—­that they were very beautiful from the upper windows.  I told her I would like to come very much, and thanked her for asking me; and then I kissed her, for—­”