A few minutes later she appeared again, looking as fresh as the morning, with a white ruffled apron clasped round her waist and a dainty muslin cap perched on her head, from beneath which stray curls peeped bewitchingly out, and passing her hand through Guy’s arm, said laughingly: 

“Will you mind coming to the kitchen, Guy?  I am afraid someone will hear us if I take you anywhere else, and I don’t want the rattle of dishes to betray us.”

“Well, this is enough to make any fellow selfish,” as he followed Dexie out to the kitchen, and closed the door softly behind him.  “You must be a fairy, to conjure such a dainty breakfast in this short time.  No one will hear us here.”

The appetizing odor of coffee filled the air, and the most fastidious person could have found no fault with the dainty little table and its appointments, with plates laid for two.

“Now, you really must be quiet, Guy,” trying to escape from his arms.  “Just see how you have mussed my hair!”

“And you haven’t mussed mine at all, I suppose!  I say, Dexie, what if Gussie should catch us here?” “Which, fortunately, is not likely; but what would she say?  The impropriety of our conduct would be shocking,” and a musical laugh sounded through the room.

“I should plead extenuating circumstances, dearest.  One does not have the delightful experience of last night but once in a lifetime, and why should we not make the most of our pleasures?  However, I can thank your father for this extended bliss.”

“The extended bliss of eating in the kitchen!” and she smiled mischievously, as she handed him a cup of coffee.  “Is this your first peep into my domain?”

“Yes, and I think it the pleasantest room in the house.  Who planned it, and invented such contrivances?” glancing approvingly at the adjustable shelves which Dexie disclosed by shoving aside what appeared to be a panel in the wall.  “We must have our kitchen just like this.”

Ignoring his last remark, except by a blush, Dexie answered: 

“I have to thank papa for the liberty I enjoy in this room; but for him I should have had the usual bare walls and no conveniences whatever.  If you had seen all the newspaper articles I read up, giving the experience of practical housekeepers, you would not wonder at the change which, with the help of a carpenter, I made in this room.  I am monarch of all I survey in this part of the house, as mamma does not care how many experiments go on here as long as everything is satisfactory that comes out of it.”

All pleasant things come to an end, and the early breakfast in the kitchen was no exception to the rule; but it remained a bright spot in the memory of both, and in after-years was often referred to.

A few minutes later Guy left the house, and, for the first time, he left it contented and happy, the sweet “Good-bye” in the hall being in strong contrast to the usual curt dismissal that had fallen to his lot hitherto when Dexie showed him out.