"No, Mammy." Linda spoke quite decidedly, "but you know he is a kind of cousin, and I must be as nice to him as possible, besides I like him very much." "He kain't hol' a can'le to Mr. Berk; he de likenes' young man I uvver see." "You'll make me jealous if you talk that way," said Linda fondly and to please her Mammy. Mammy ducked her head and laughed, shaking her head from side to side. "I'll not go away again if you are going to get so fond of someone else while I am gone," Linda went on with a pretence of pouting. Mammy fairly doubled up at this. "Ain' it de troof?" she cried. "Law, chile," she continued appeasingly, "I ain't so t'arin' fond o' him; he ain't tall enough." It was Linda's turn to laugh, and she went back to Miss Ri to repeat Mammy's criticism. CHAPTER XIX OF WHAT AVAIL? Berkley's words did have the effect of encouraging Mr. Jeffreys to take heart anew, and, as it would be another month before his presence would be required in Hartford, he concluded not to neglect his opportunities. Therefore again Berkley retired to the background to watch his rival pass by with Linda, walk to church with her, while he heard of his visiting her daily. It seemed, then, that he did not intend to give her up lightly. "I don't know what to do about it," Linda confided to Miss Ri ruefully. "I can't tell him to go home when he comes, and I can't disappear like the Cheshire cat when he joins me on the street. He will be such a short time here that it doesn't seem worth while to do more than let matters drift." "I rather like his persistence," declared Miss Ri. "He'll win you yet, Verlinda." Linda neither affirmed nor denied. Another little poem had found its way into print and there was hope ahead, even though Talbot's Angles should be lost to her. "It isn't such a tremendously valuable piece of property after all," Miss Ri continued her remarks, showing the trend of her thought, "and if you weren't so sentimentally fond of it, Verlinda, I don't know that it would be such a great loss. I wish you'd let me adopt you; then I'd leave you this place." "You'd have me give up my independence, Aunt Ri? Oh, no. We've canvassed that question too often. If you had taken me before I had known what it was to hoe my own row, it might have done, but now, oh, no. You're the dearest of dears to tempt me, but we shall both be happier with no faster bond than that which self-elected friends must always feel. I love no one so well as you, and you don't dislike me, though I admit I don't consider myself first in your regard." "And who do you think is? Not Becky Hill's brood, I'm sure. They will have enough, and I am not one of those who think everything should go to those of the name, unless there's love, too. Who do you mean? If you're not first, who is?" "Berkley Matthews." "Better say he used to be. He hasn't the sense he was born with. If I were his mother I'd spank him." "Now, Aunt Ri, what for?"