She sat down again in the chair from which she had risen and regarded him critically.
"Oh, cousin Archibald, if thee were only a little bit different!"
"Thee, too!" he laughed—actually laughed; and the action seemed to clear his features like a sunburst.
"Oh, of course. Well, it's this way. To-morrow's Christmas, isn't it?"
"So I've heard."
"And somebody—Teamster John—has sent Cleena 'the furnishing of a good dinner,' she told me. I don't know when we may have another such a meal, one that thee would think fit to eat. I'd like to ask thee to come and share it with us, instead of staying here alone, all grumpy with the gout. But it isn't my dinner, thee sees, and I'm going home to tell my people everything. About the picture and the donkey and all. If, after that, they agree with me that it would be nice to ask thee to spend the holiday with us, I'll bring thee word. If I do, will thee come?"
Mr. Wingate leaned back in his easy-chair and hugged his gouty foot for so long and so silently that Amy grew impatient and rose.
"Anyway, I must go home. I've been here ever so much later than I meant to stay. Good-by."
"Wait! How impetuous you—thee is. Well, I've received a great many invitations to dine, from the banquets of bank presidents down to the boiled dinners of my own workmen, but I doubt if I ever received one so honest and so honestly expressed."