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172 "It certainly is a compliment to my abilities for making myself agreeable at a distance. But—" said Clem, with a shrug of his shoulders, "a poor fellow does not like to feel as if the farther away he is, the better he is liked!"

"Oh! I did not mean it that way at all!" exclaimed Nattie, in hasty explanation. "Only, you know, I had more of your company on the wire!"

Clem looked pleased.

"If that is the trouble" he began, but Nattie interrupted, her face very red.

"I did not mean that, either; I meant it was in such a different way, you know—and I—I could talk more easily, and—I do not believe I know what I do mean!" stopping short in embarrassment.

Clem looked at her and smiled.

"Let us see if it is any easier talking on the wire," he said; and taking the key, he wrote,

"Good P m, will you please tell me truly, and relieve my mind, if you like me as well as you thought you would?"

Taking the key he relinquished, and without looking at him, she replied, "Yes; and suppose I ask you the same question, what would you say, politeness aside?" "I should answer," wrote Clem, his eyes on the