y that is true enough," assented Phyllis. "Perhaps I never did
really love Mr. Holland. Perhaps I only fancied I cared for him because
I saw that so many other girls--took to wearing chocolates and grays and
kept their sleeves down just when sleeves were highest."

"Of course it was only natural that you should wish to--well,
colloquially, to wipe the eyes of the other girls. How many girls, I
should like to know, begin to think of a man as a possible husband
until they perceive that the thoughts of other girls are turned in his
direction?"

"At any rate, whatever I may have done long ago--"

"Three months ago."

"Three months ago. Whatever I may have done then, I know that I don't
love him now."

"Don't be too sure, my dear Phyllis. If there is one thing more than
another about which a woman should never be positive, it is whether or
not she loves a particular man. What mistakes they make! No, I'll never
believe that you turned him adrift simply because he wrote something
disparagingly about Solomon, or was it David? And I did so want you and
him for my next day; I meant it to be such a _coup_, to have returned to
town only a week and yet to have the most outrageously unorthodox parson
at my house. Ah, that would indeed have been a _coup_! Never mind, I can
at least have the beautiful girl who, though devoted to the unorthodox
parson, threw him over on account of his unorthodoxy."

"Yes, you are certain of me--that is, if you think I should--if it
wouldn't seem a little----"

"What nonsense, Phyllis! Where have you been living for the past
twenty-three years that you should get such a funny notion into your
head? Do you think that girls nowadays absent themselves from felicity
awhile when they find it necessary to become--well, disengaged--yes, or
divorced, for that matter?"

"I really can't recollect any case of--"

"Of course you can't. They don't exist. The proper thing for a women to
do when she gets a divorce is to take a box at a theatre and give
the audience a chance of recognizing her from her portraits that have
already appeared in the illustrated papers. The block printing has done
that too. There's not a theatre manager in London who wouldn't give his
best box to a woman who has come straight from the divorce court. The
managers recognize the fact that she is in the same line as themselves.
But for you, my dear Phyllis--oh, you will never do him the injustice to
keep your throwing over of him a se