"
"You are very kind to think of them, Mistress Patience," replied
Edward; "they are fond of flowers, and will be much pleased with
possessing any."
"You sleep here to-night, I think my father said?" inquired Patience.
"He did make the proposal, and I shall gladly avail myself of it, as I
am not to trust to Phoebe's ideas of comfort this time," said Edward,
smiling.
"Yes, that was a cross action of Phoebe's; and I can tell you, Master
Armitage, that she is ashamed to look you in the face ever since; but
how fortunate for me that she was cross, and turned you out as she
did! You must forgive her, as she was the means of your performing a
noble action; and I must forgive her, as she was the means of my life
being saved."
"I have no feeling except kindness toward Phoebe," replied Edward;
"indeed I ought to feel grateful to her; for if she had not given me
so bad a bed that night, I never should have been so comfortably
lodged as it is proposed that I shall be now."
"I hope you are hungry, Edward," said Clara; "dinner is almost ready."
"I dare say I shall eat more than you do, Clara."
"So you ought, a great big man like you. How old are you, Edward?"
said Clara; "I am thirteen; Patience is past sixteen: now, how old are
you?"
"I am not yet eighteen, Clara, so that I can hardly be called a man.
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