"That so?" said Pippin in an easy drawl. He tilted his chair back on two legs, and smiled amiably at his interlocutor. "Why, Nosey, I'm sorry you feel that way. I never meant to spile it permanent, but it does seem to have got a kind of a twist, don't it? I wouldn't bear malice, though, if I was you!" "---- ---- you!" hissed the man. "I'll have your--" The door opened; he dropped back against the table, and his face became once more a wooden mask. Mary, her hands full of scissors, looked from one to the other; her breath came a little quickly, as if she had hurried. "You two gentlemen know each other?" she asked doubtfully. "Why," said Pippin slowly, "I thought he was a boy I used to know, but he seems to think different. What is your handsome name, Mister, since Nosey Bashford won't do you?" "My name's Brown!" said the man hoarsely. "Well, they both begin with B," said Pippin. "I don't know as it matters any." "Was there anything else you wanted to say, Mr. Brown?" asked Mary civilly. At this palpable hint, the man could but take up his basket and start for the door. He gave Pippin one venomous look; Pippin replied with a slight but friendly nod. "So long, bo!" he said cheerfully. At the door the man paused, as if struck by a sudden thought. He had some extra fine tomato plants in the cart, he said. They was an order for Goodwins, next door, but the boss thought likely Mr. Aymer (Mary's employer) would like some. Wouldn't Mary step out and look at them? 'Twouldn't take but a minute, if she wasn't afraid to leave--a significant glance toward Pippin finished the sentence and decided Mary's answer. She had meant to say, "No!" with some asperity. As it was, she said, "Yes!" and followed him out to the gate, leaving Pippin alone. Now, the latter asked himself, wouldn't that give you a pain? Honest, now, wouldn't it? What did he suppose that skeezicks was sayin' to her. If he came the give-away, he, Pippin, expected he could give him as good. Even if Dod was dead, and it wasn't likely he was-- If Pippin had been a cultivated person, he would have said, "The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices Make instruments to plague us!" Being a plain person, he said, no two ways about it, that was what come of startin' mean. Yes; but, he reminded himself, the start was not of his own making. Let him be straight and keep straight, and things would come round 'cordin' to! "That's right!" said Pippin aloud. "I'm only makin' a beginnin', so to say. _My_ start is right now, see? Let Dod and Nosey get what they can out of theirs. Last week's dough-scrapin's needn't trouble me!" Mary came back with her head high, a flush on her cheek and a sparkle in her eye. "Gorry to 'Liza!" said Pippin, but not aloud. "She looks some-er when she's mad than when she's pleased!" "Known Nosey long?" asked Pippin, rising as she entered. "No, nor want to! He's not my style, nor I his. Did you really know him, Mr. Pippin?"