"Tea will do you good, Miss Frances," he said with a most engaging smile. "Try Mrs. Trott's wonders. Have you ever eaten a Jersey wonder?"
"It looks like a doughnut," said Frances, taking a fried cake from the proffered plate.
A sudden, mischievous grin crossed the young man's face. "A plain New
England doughnut disguised by an old-world name," he said.
"New England!" repeated Frances, stopping with the cake halfway to her mouth. "How do you know about New England doughnuts?"
Mr. Max seated himself, looking boyishly amused.
"'Land where our fathers died,
Land of the Pilgrims' pride,'"
he quoted, seriously enough but with gray eyes dancing with fun. "Oh, I know the whole thing. Shall we sing it together?"
"Are you really an American?" Frances demanded in utter amazement.
"Then how—what—You don't talk—But that accounts for it."
She stopped, feeling suddenly shy of questioning him. "Well," she added after a second, "that's the reason I didn't feel a bit strange about coming with you. It seemed all right—just as though you were somebody I knew."
"Thank you, Miss Frances," said her companion. "That is a very lovely way to express your appreciation. Yes, we are fellow-countrymen, though I have spent much of my life in Europe. In fact, my first visit to the United States was when I was around your age. Since then I've put in four years at Yale and one in Washington. Now, I'm attached to the American Embassy in Paris and came over here to spend the Christmas holidays with old friends. Jersey has seen me many times before this. That's how I happen to know about the sea anemones and the tides."