"I don't know," said Winthrop. — "I guess we had better walk on now, Miss Elizabeth."

"Walk on! — it rains too hard."

"But we are in the shed, while other people are out?"

"No but, — suppose that by going out I could bring them in?"

"Then I would certainly act as your messenger," he said smiling. "But you can't reach all the people who are so careless as to go out without umbrellas."

Elizabeth was betrayed into a laugh —a genuine hearty laugh of surprise, in which her awkwardness was for a moment forgotten.

"How came you to bring one, such a day?"

"I thought the sun was going to shine."

"But seriously, Mr. Landholm, my question," — said Elizabeth.

"What was it?"