"I wish I could."

"Why, of course you can," said Mason. "Imagine the delight of smuggling
your purchases back to Boston. Confess that this is a pleasure you
hadn't thought of."

"I admit the fascination of it all, but you see I am with a party that
has gone on to Quebec, and I just got away for a day. I am to meet them
there to-night or to-morrow morning. But I will return in the autumn,
Mrs. Mason, when it is too late for the picnics. Then, Mr. Mason, take
warning. I mean to have a canoe to myself, or--well, you know the way we
Bostonians treated you Britishers once upon a time."

"Distinctly. But we will return good for evil, and give you warm tea
instead of the cold mixture you so foolishly brewed in the harbour."

As the buckboard disappeared around the corner, and Mr. and Mrs. Mason
walked back to the house, the lady said--

"What a strange girl Eva is."

"Very. Don't she strike you as being a trifle selfish?"

"Selfish? Eva Sommerton? Why, what could make you think such a thing?
What an absurd idea! You cannot imagine how kind she was to me when I
visited Boston."

"Who could help it, my dear? I would have been so myself if I had
happened to meet you there."