“Shall I tell you what to offer me? Then offer me the privilege of giving. It is the rarest gift within your power.”

She sat looking at me while the soft colour waned and deepened in her cheeks.

“I — give,” she said in a voice scarce audible.

“Then,” said I, very happily, “I am free to tell you that I have commanded for your comfort a host of pretty things, and a big box of wood and brass, with a stout hide outside, to keep your clothing in! The lady of Captain Cresson, of the levies, has a noble one. Yours is its mate. And into yours will fit your gowns and shoon, patches and powder, and the hundred articles which every woman needs by day and night. Also I’ve named you to Mr. Hake, so that, first writing for me upon a slip of paper that I may send it to him —