"One mustn't be too far off," said Winthrop, "to have one's words reach them."
"But I didn't mean to be far off," said Elizabeth.
"I didn't mean to be near."
Elizabeth looked at him, but he was grave; and then she smiled, and then laughed.
"You've hit it!" she exclaimed. "I shall remember that."
"Take care, Miss Elizabeth," said Winthrop, as her foot slipped in the muddy way, — "or you will have more to remember than would be convenient. You had better take my arm."
So she did; musing a little curiously at herself and that arm, which she had seen in a shirt-sleeve, carrying a pickaxe on shoulder; and making up her mind in spite of it all that she didn't care! So the walk home was not otherwise than comfortable. Indeed the beauty of it was more than once remarked on by both parties.
"Well!" said Rose, when at last Elizabeth came into the room where she was sitting, — "have you got home?"
"Yes."
"What have you been doing all this while?"