wouldn't say "Then sup with _me_!" but the proof of it made her feel as
if she had feasted.

"I'm not a bit hungry," she went on.

"Ah you _must_ be, awfully!" he made answer, but settling himself on the
bench as if, after all, that needn't interfere with his spending his
evening. "I've always quite wanted the chance to thank you for the
trouble you so often take for me."

"Yes, I know," she replied; uttering the words with a sense of the
situation far deeper than any pretence of not fitting his allusion. She
immediately felt him surprised and even a little puzzled at her frank
assent; but for herself the trouble she had taken could only, in these
fleeting minutes--they would probably never come back--be all there like
a little hoard of gold in her lap. Certainly he might look at it, handle
it, take up the pieces. Yet if he understood anything he must understand
all. "I consider you've already immensely thanked me." The horror was
back upon her of having seemed to hang about for some reward. "It's
awfully odd you should have been there just the one time--!"

"The one time you've passed my place?"

"Yes; you can fancy I haven't many minutes to waste. There was a place
to-night I had to stop at."

"I see, I see--" he knew already so much about her work. "It must be an
awful grind--for a lady."

"It is, but I don't think I groan over it any more than my companions--and