All's Fair

"I was, decidedly," he answered, his eyes fixed on her. Then he added, "And I am yet."

"Indeed?" She raised her eyebrows, smiling.

"I spent my childhood here and I feel now, somehow, as if I owned the place."

"It's very good of you to let me stay here--" she began.

"I'm so glad you came--at last! I missed you when I was a boy. I knew you would come, sometime."

"Indeed? How dear of you! How long ago was that?"

"Let's see--I was ten years old--eighteen years ago. Just think of it!"

"And I was eight. I'm afraid I wasn't very romantic myself. I was a matter-of-fact little thing, though I did have some queer fancies now I remember it." Her eyes had come back from the hills,