He followed in silence along the narrow foot-path bordered by weeds, and stood back while she stepped boldly up on the rude stone slab and rapped sharply against the warped and sagging door.

A moment they stood thus waiting with no response from within.

Once she glanced suspiciously around at him, only to wheel back instantly and once more apply her knuckles to the wood.

Before he had conjured up something worth saying the door was partially opened, and a rounded dumpling of a woman, having rosy cheeks, her hair iron-gray, her blue eyes half smiling in uncertain welcome, looked out upon them questioningly.
"I 've come to live here," announced the girl, sullenly.

"That is, if I like it." The woman continued to gaze at her, as if tempted to laugh outright; then the pleasant blue eyes hardened as their vision swept beyond toward Hampton.
"It is extremely kind of you, I 'm sure," she said at last.