out her hand towards my friend, with a frankness I could have dispensed
with in her; "but, you will remember, Mr. Littlepage, or _Master_
Littlepage as he then was, was a stranger, and I had no such claim on
_him_, as I certainly have on you."

"Well, Corny, it is odd you never said a word of this to me! when I was
showing him Lilacsbush, and talking of you and of your father, not a word
did he say on the subject."

"I did not then know it was Miss Mordaunt I had been so fortunate as to
serve; but here is Mr. Newcome at your elbow, Follock, and dying to be
introduced, as he sees I have been."

Anneke turned to smile and curtsey again to Jason, who made his bow in
a very school-master sort of a fashion, while I could see that the
circumstance I had not boasted of my exploit gave it new importance in the
sweet creature's eyes. As for Jason, he had no sooner got along with
the introduction,--the first, I fancy, he had ever gone regularly
through,--than, profiting by some questions Miss Mordaunt was asking Dirck
about his mother and the rest of the family, he came round to me, drew me
aside by a jerk of the sleeve, and gave me to understand he had something
for my private ear.

"I did not know before that you had ever kept school, Corny," he half
whispered earnestly.

"How do you know it now, Mr. Newcome? since the thing never happened?"

"How comes it, then, that this young woman called you _Master_ Littlepage?"