I fell asleep planning an excursion farther into the mountains, which
should take up the rest of the week that I expected him to stay with me,
and would keep him from following up his studies of American life where
they would be so injurious to both of us as they must in our hotel. A
knock at my door roused me, and I sent a drowsy "Come in!" toward it from
the bedclothes without looking that way.
"Good-morning!" came back in the rich, gentle voice of the Altrurian. I
lifted my head with a jerk from the pillow, and saw him standing against
the closed door, with my shoes in his hand. "Oh, I am sorry I waked you. I
thought--"
"Not at all, not at all," I said. "It's quite time, I dare say. But you
oughtn't to have taken the trouble to bring my shoes in."
"I wasn't altogether disinterested in it," he returned. "I wished you to
compliment me on them. Don't you think they are pretty well done, for an
amateur?" He came toward my bed, and turned them about in his hands, so
that they would catch the light, and smiled down upon me.
"I don't understand," I began.
"Why," he said, "I blacked them, you know."
"You blacked them?"
"Yes," he returned, easily.
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