Lord! But it chills me to the bone! The silly, saucy baggage!”

She shuddered there in the hot sunshine, then shot at me a look so keen and penetrating that I felt my ears go red. Which sudden distress on my part again curved her lips into an indulgent smile.

“I always thought I knew you, Euan Loskiel,” she said. “I think so still� . As for your fairy damsel in distress — h’m — when may I see her?”

In a low voice I confessed the late raggedness of Lois, and how she now wore an Oneida dress until the boxes, which I had commanded, might arrive from Albany. I had to tell her this, had to explain how I had won from Lois this privilege of giving, spite of her pride.

“If I could bring her to you,”