Mr. von Inwald had been sitting with his feet straight out, scowling, but now he turned and looked at me coolly.

“All that keeps me here,” he said, “is Minnie’s lovely hair.  It takes me mentally back home, Minnie, to a lovely lady—­may I have a bit of it to keep by me?”

“You may not,” I retorted angrily.

“Oh!  The lovely lady—­but never mind that.  For the sake of my love for you, Minnie, find me a cigarette, like a good girl!  I am desolate.”

“There’s no tobacco on the place,” I said firmly, and went on with my sweeping.

“When I was a boy,” Mr. Thoburn remarked, looking out thoughtfully over the snow, “we made a sort of cigarette out of corn-silk.  You don’t happen to have any corn-silk about, do you, Minnie?”

“No,” I said shortly.  “If you take my advice, Mr. Thoburn, you’ll go back to town.  You can get all the tobacco you want there—­and you’re wasting your time here.”  I leaned on my broom and looked down at him, but he was stretching out his foot and painfully working his ankle up and down.

“Am I?” he asked, looking at his foot.  “Well, don’t count on it too much, Minnie.  You always inspire me, and sitting here I’ve just thought of something.”

He got up and hobbled off the porch, followed by Mr. von Inwald.  I saw him say something to Mr. von Inwald, who threw back his head and laughed.  Then I saw them stop and shake hands and go on again in deep conversation.  I felt uneasy.

Doctor Barnes came out that afternoon and watched me while I closed the windows.  He had a package in his hand.  He sat on the railing of the spring and looked at me.

“You’re not warmly enough dressed for this kind of thing,” he remarked.  “Where’s that gray rabbits’ fur, or whatever it is?”

“If you mean my chinchillas,” I said, “they’re in their box.  Chinchillas are as delicate as babies and not near so plentiful.  I’m warm enough.”

“You look it.”  He reached over and caught one of my hands.  “Look at that!  Blue nails!  It’s about four degrees above zero here, and while the rest are wrapped in furs and steamer rugs, with hotwater bottles at their feet, you’ve got on a shawl.  I’ll bet you two dollars you haven’t got on any—­er—­winter flannels.”

“I never bet,” I retorted, and went on folding up the steamer rugs.

“I’d like to help,” he said, “but you’re so darned capable, Miss Minnie—­”

“You might see if you can get the slot-machine empty,” I said.  “It’s full of water.  It wouldn’t work and Mr. Moody thought it was frozen.  He’s been carrying out boiling water all afternoon.  If it stays in there and freezes the thing will explode.”

He wasn’t listening.  He’d been fussing with his package and now he opened it and handed it to me, in the paper.

“It’s a sweater,” he said, not looking at me.  “I bought it for myself and it was too small—­ Confound it, Minnie, I wish I could lie!  I bought them for you!  There’s the whole business—­sweater, cap, leggings and mittens.  Go on!  Throw them at me!”