Elizabeth had accepted--not too eagerly, of course--an invitation to walk with him; and off they went, down Sandusky Street to the river and across the old covered bridge. They stopped to say how do you do to Mrs. Todd, who was peering out from behind the scarlet geraniums in the window of the "saloon." Elizabeth took the usual suggestive joke about a "pretty pair" with a little hauteur, but David beamed, and as he left the room he squeezed Mrs. Todd suddenly round her fat waist, which made her squeak but pleased her very much. "Made for each other!" she whispered wheezily; and David slipped a bill into her hand through sheer joy. "Better have some ice-cream," the old lady wheedled; "such hot blood needs cooling." "Oh, Mrs. Todd, _she_ is so cool, I don't need ice-cream," the young fellow mourned in her motherly ear. "Get out with ye! Ain't you got eyes? She's waitin' to eat you up,--and starvin' for ye!" And David hurried after Elizabeth, who had reached the toll-gate and was waiting, if not to eat him, at any rate for his company. "She's a dear old soul!" he said joyfully. "I believe you gave her a kiss," Elizabeth declared. "I gave her a hug. She said things I liked!" Elizabeth, guessing what the things might have been, swerved away from the subject, and murmured how pretty the country looked. There had been a snow-storm the night before, and the fields were glistening, unbroken sheets of white; the road David chose was followed by a brook, that ran chuckling between the agate strips of ice along its banks; here and there a dipping branch had been caught and was held in a tinkling crystal prison, and here and there the ice conquered the current, and the water could be heard gurgling and complaining under its snowy covering. David thought that all the world was beautiful,--now that Mrs. Todd had bidden him use his eyes! "Remember when we used to sled down this hill, Elizabeth?" She turned her cool, glowing face toward him and nodded. "Indeed I do! And you used to haul my sled up to the top again." "I don't think I have forgotten anything we did." Instantly she veered away from personalities. "Isn't it a pity Blair dislikes Mercer so much? Nannie is dreadfully lonely without him." "She has you; I don't see how she can be lonely." "Oh, I don't count for anything compared to Blair." Her breath carried quickly. The starry light was in her eyes, but he did not see it. He was not daring to look at her. "You count for everything to me," he said, in a constrained voice. She was silent. "Elizabeth...do you think you could--care? a little?" She looked away from him without a word. David trembled; "It's all up--" he said to himself; and even as he said it, a small, cold hand was stretched out to him,--a hand that trembled: "David, I am not good enough. Truly, I'm not."