I shall feel so much less as if I was enjoying your company under false pretenses." "Yo' just wait here, then." She jumped from the sofa, ran out of the room, and returned presently, tying the string of a long striped cotton blouse--evidently an extra one of Sophy's--behind her back as she returned.

It was gathered under her oval chin by a tape also tied behind her, while her fair hair was tucked under the usual red bandana handkerchief of the negro housemaid.

It is scarcely necessary to add that the effect was bewitching.
"But," said Miss Sally, eying her guest's smartly fitting frock-coat, "yo' 'll spoil yo'r pooty clothes, sure! Take off yo'r coat--don't mind me--and work in yo'r shirtsleeves." Courtland obediently flung aside his coat and followed his active hostess through the French window to the platform outside.

Above them a wooden ledge or cornice, projecting several inches, ran the whole length of the building.

It was on this that Miss Sally had evidently found a foothold while she was nailing up a trellis-work of laths between it and the windows of the second floor.