Here was a miniature vision of loveliness, with a face so fair and tender, and eyes so true and clear, that it did one good to look at her. And so I felt, for out of pure light spirits I laughed aloud.
“Why do you laugh?” she asked, looking up with pardonable surprise to be thus greeted after so long a silence.
“I laugh to think I had almost begun our friendship with a crime.”
“What is that?” she returned.
“I do not know. You have made me forget.”
She looked at me with evident and curious interest for some little time, holding the flowers in one hand and in the other a dish of fruit, till at last she observed,—
“Don’t they ever kiss each other where you come from?”
At a hint so broad I had no further excuse for not extending such a simple salutation. So I stooped and kissed her, and lifted her up with her various gifts beside me on the bed.
She took some of the fruit in her hand and held it to me.
“Eat this,” she bade me. “It will make you strong.”