"Thank you," said Arnold, rubbing it languidly with his handkerchief. His
hat had dropped off, and he did not replace it; he did not look at the
girl, but let his eyes rest on the thread of falling water that gleamed
from the spring. Miss Frances, regarding him with some timidity, thought:
How much younger he looks without his hat! He had that sensitive fairness
which in itself gives a look of youth and purity; the sternness of his
face lay in the curves which showed under his mustache, and in the silent,
dominant eye.

"You've no idea how good it sounds to a lonely fellow like me," he said,
"to hear a girl's laugh."

"But there are a great many women here," Miss Frances observed.

"Oh yes, there are women everywhere, such as they are; but it takes a nice
girl, a lady, to laugh!"

"I don't agree with you at all," replied Miss Frances coldly. "Some of
those Mexican women have the sweetest voices, speaking or laughing, that I
have ever heard; and the Cornish women, too, have very fresh, pure voices.
I often listen to them in the evening when I sit alone in my room. Their
voices sound so happy"--

"Well, then it is the home accent,--or I'm prejudiced. Don't laugh again,
please, Miss Frances; it breaks me all up." He moved his head a little, and
looked across at the girl to assure himself that her silence did not mean
disapproval. "I admit," he went on, "that I like our Eastern girls. I know
you are from the East, Miss Newell."