"My compliments, Blanche Aurora." King bowed toward his companion whose small white teeth gleamed in a face thrilled into vivacity. "You do Miss Linda credit."
"So I wondered what you was like, O King—I mean Mr. King. I guess you're just plain Mister, ain't you?"
"There never was a plainer."
"And so, when I seen this new likeness on Miss Linda's table, standin' by her pa's, I wondered if perhaps 'twas you, and it is!" finished Blanche Aurora with all the triumph of a Sherlock Holmes. "I put a wild rose front of her pa every day, and says I to her this mornin', 'Shall I git a rose for the new picture, too?'—but she looked awful sad and she shook her head and says, 'I'm afraid not, Blanche Aurora. We need pansies for that'; and we ain't got a pansy on the place. I'm awful sorry."
"Do you know, I don't believe I can quite finish this delicious jelly? I feel now as if my sweater wouldn't give any more."
"Well, you've et quite a lot," observed the visitor, looking into the bowl.
"I certainly have; and will you thank Miss Barry for me, and tell her that I feel in these noticeable bones that I'm going to be up and around before very long?"
"I'll tell her; and, oh, yes! Be you able to see folks?"
King's eyes twinkled. "Well, I seem to have seen you without any danger."
"Yes, but they didn't expect I was goin' to see you." There was a triumphant gleam in the speaker's eyes. "They told me to leave the jell."