"What,—and I am only seventeen? You are crazy, my dear sir,—I am only beginning that sort of thing. It is very amusing to have young men come to see you; although, of course," she interpolated, modestly, "I shall not make a choice for some years yet."
"I should hope not," said her companion, stiffly.
"I say I have never had an admirer; yet sometimes gay young men would stare at me in the street,—I suppose on account of this red hair,—and Mr. Nimmo would be very much annoyed with them."
"A city is a wicked place; it is well that you have come home."
"With that I console myself when I am sometimes lonely for Paris," said Bidiane, wistfully. "I long to see those entrancing streets and parks, and to mingle with the lively crowds of people; but I say to myself what Mr. Nimmo often told me, that one can be as happy in one place as in another, and home is the best of all to keep the heart fresh. 'Bidiane,' he said, one day, when I was extolling the beauties of Paris, 'I would give it all for one glimpse of the wind-swept shores of your native Bay.'"
"Ah, he still thinks that!"
"Yes, yes; though I never after heard him say anything like it. I only know his feelings through his mother."
Agapit turned the conversation to other subjects. He never cared to discuss Vesper Nimmo for any length of time.
When they reached the Sleeping Water Inn, Bidiane hospitably invited him to stay to supper.