"I ’m quite sure of that." "And I think she would not like me to be—as you say—inhospitable." "I didn’t say it; but I’m quite sure she would n’t." Marjolaine’s kind little heart was quite melted. This good-looking young man spoke so very humbly. "I might—I might bring you out something—" A gleam of triumph crossed Jack’s face, but he answered with the air of a martyr: "Oh! don’t trouble!" Marjolaine’s sense of the proprieties got the better of her again. "What would the neighbours say if they saw me feeding an entire stranger?" Jack leaped up in indignant protest. "But I ’m not! I ’ve told you my name. That’s as much as anybody ever knows about anybody!" Marjolaine was now in the shadow of the elm. She examined every house in the Walk. "Number One ’s asleep; Number Two ’s combing her wig; Number Three ’s working; Number Five’s nursing one of the four; and Number Six"—poor Doctor Sternroyd!—"doesn’t matter. I ’ll risk it." She turned to go in, but stopped. "What would you like?" Jack protested, "Oh, my dear young lady!—It’s not for me to say. Anything you offer me—anything!" Ticking the items off on her pretty fingers, Marjolaine enumerated the various beverages stored in her mother’s cupboard. "We have elderberry wine; cowslip wine; red-currant wine; and gooseberry wine." Jack’s face was a study. It had grown so long that Marjolaine exclaimed with genuine sympathy, "Why, you look quite ill! Which do you say?" It was a choice between poison and discourtesy, but Jack was equal to it. "I ’ve been brought up very simply. I should never have the presumption to ask for any of those. Have n’t you any ale?" "Ale!" cried Marjolaine, "how low!" "I said I ’d been brought up simply." "We have no ale." Before he could stop himself Jack had cried "And this is England!" But Marjolaine had had an idea. "I know! There ’s Maman’s claret. She takes it for her health. What do you say to _that_?" Jack had not tried it, and did n’t know what he might be likely to say to it. He could only stammer, "Oh, it’s better than—better than—" he was going to add elderberry, or cowslip, but caught himself up in time—"better than ale." "Ah!—Now, will you wait a moment under the tree?" "I’ll wait hours, anywhere!" Marjolaine caught sight of a figure moving about in Number Three. She came on tip-toe to Jack. You see, by this time there was quite a conspiracy between them. "No! Better!" she whispered. "Go into the Gazebo." Jack could only stare at her. "Into the what?" She ran across to the summer-house, Jack following her. "Here," she cried, "in the summer-house. And keep quite still." For a moment a horrible suspicion crossed Jack’s mind. "I say! You will come back? You ’re not going to leave me here to perish of thirst?" "That would be a good joke!" she laughed. "I ’ll carve your name while you ’re gone!" "No, you won’t!" "Why not?" "Because you don’t know it!—_Voilà_!"