"Ah, Christine," he answered, looking at her sentimentally over a
coffee-cup, "I shouldn't ask anything better than to wash your dishes for
the rest of my life."

"Thank you, Edward, but I think I should ask something a good deal
better," she answered.

It was on this scene that Ussher and Riatt entered, and the eyes of the
latter twinkled.

"Engaged a kitchen-maid, I see," he said in a low tone to Christine.

"I think it's so good for people to do something useful now and then,
don't you?"

"A form of education that you offer almost every one who comes near you."

Hickson did not hear everything, but he caught the idea, and said
severely:

"I don't suppose any one would ask Miss Fenimer to wash dirty dishes."

Riatt laughed: "No one who had ever seen her try."

Ussher, who had been fuming in the background, now broke out:

"Upon my word, Christine, that tool-house was like a vault. It was
madness to ask any one to spend the night in such a place."

"Did you spend the night in the tool-house?" said Hickson with unusual