“But he’s often in your father’s office and at your house, and Mr. Austin doesn’t buy machines.”

“Then perhaps he’s speculating in building lots; we deal in them,” Carmen rejoined with a laugh.  “I sometimes meet my father’s friends, but don’t ask them about their business.”

She went on with her supper, and Daly and his companion sat down not far off.  The fellow was well dressed and on the whole a handsome man, though there was nothing about him to excite marked attention.  He looked a little older than Foster, who studied him thoughtfully.  Daly had sold one or two machines in the neighborhood of the Crossing, but the business he did there hardly seemed to warrant his visit.  It was possible that he made it an excuse for watching Featherstone, but Foster fancied that Carmen knew more about him than she confessed.

“Perhaps you will visit Scotland before you come back,” she said by and by.

“It’s possible.  Featherstone’s relations live near the Border.”

“Then I dare say you will take a packet for me to Edinburgh.”

“Of course,” said Foster, who felt some surprise, and thought Carmen saw this although she looked at him gratefully.

“I know you’ll take care of it, and you don’t ask questions; but you wonder why I want to send it by you.  Well, the girls are inquisitive in our post office, and I’m sending the packet to a man.  Besides, I wouldn’t like it damaged, and things sometimes get broken in the mail.”

Foster said this often happened and hinted that the man was fortunate, but Carmen laughed.

“Oh,” she said, “he’s as old as my father; we have friends in the Old Country.  But there really is a little secret about the matter, and I don’t want anybody but you to see the packet.”

“Very well; but I believe the Customs searchers, who examine your baggage, are sometimes officious.  They might think I was trying to smuggle and make me open the thing.”

“No; they wouldn’t suspect you.  You have such a careless and innocent look.  For all that, your friends know you can be trusted.”

“Thank you!  I suppose I’m lucky, because one meets people whose looks are against them.  Anyhow, I’ll take the packet, and if necessary, protect it with my life.”

“It won’t be necessary,” Carmen answered, smiling.  Although she talked about other matters for some minutes before she told him to take her back to the hall, he imagined this was tactful politeness and she did not want to dismiss him too soon after obtaining her object.

He danced one or two dances with other partners and enjoyed them keenly.  His work was finished for the winter, and after the strenuous toil of the last ten years, it was a new and exhilarating experience to feel at liberty.  Then there was no reason he should deny himself the pleasure he expected to derive from his trip.  Their small mill was only adapted for the supply of certain kinds of lumber, for which there was now not much demand, and they had not enough money to remodel it, while business would not get brisk again until the spring.