"I have not forgotten that you thought me identical with him," he could not forbear saying.
"I did not mean to hurt your feelings," she answered, with deepening color.
"Oh, you were not to blame in the least," he said good-naturedly.
"I deserved it."
"You must remember, too," she continued, deprecatingly, "that I am a city girl, and not acquainted with country ways, and so have charity." Then she added earnestly, "We do not want to put a constraint on your family life, or make home seem less homelike to you all."
Mrs. Jocelyn with Belle and the children were descending the stairs. "I misunderstood you, Miss Jocelyn," said Roger, with a penitent look, and he hastily strode away.
"I've disarmed him," thought Mildred, with a half smile. She had, a little too completely.
Belle claimed her old place with Roger, and their light wagon was soon lost in the windings of the road.
"Millie," whispered Belle, as the former joined her at church, "what could you have said to Roger to make him effervesce so remarkably? I had to remind him that it was Sunday half a dozen times."
"What a great boy he is!" answered Mildred.
"The idea of my teaching him sobriety seemed to amuse him amazingly."