She laid her cool hand against my cheeks, which were burning.

"Little Kitty, you are very young," she said. "Don't—don't be in a hurry. Perhaps some day—"

Then she stopped and thought, and presently she asked—

"What of young Bowman? I hear you and he are great friends."

"He may call himself so," I said, and I could have cried.

"Is that all? I fancied—"

"We know him very well," I said; "and he likes us. So, I suppose, we are friends. Only he gets so—"

"So what?" she asked.

"So cross," I said— "and disagreeable. I hate people to be cross and disagreeable."

"You would like to bask in sunshine always, wouldn't you?"