of saponaceous matter, and great tenpenny nails?'

'He's not in such a small way as that!' she almost pleaded. 'He owns
ships, though they are rather little ones!'

'O, well, it is much the same. Come, let us walk on; it is tedious to
stand still. I thought you would be a failure in education,' he
continued, when she obeyed him and strolled ahead. 'You never showed
power that way. You remind me much of some of those women who think they
are sure to be great actresses if they go on the stage, because they have
a pretty face, and forget that what we require is acting. But you found
your mistake, didn't you?'

'Don't taunt me, Charles.' It was noticeable that the young
schoolmaster's tone caused her no anger or retaliatory passion; far
otherwise: there was a tear in her eye. 'How is it you are at
Pen-zephyr?' she inquired.

'I don't taunt you. I speak the truth, purely in a friendly way, as I
should to any one I wished well. Though for that matter I might have
some excuse even for taunting you. Such a terrible hurry as you've been
in. I hate a woman who is in such a hurry.'

'How do you mean that?'

'Why--to be somebody's wife or other--anything's wife rather than
nobody's. You couldn't wait for me, O, no. Well, thank God, I'm cured
of all that!'

'How merciless you are!' she said bitterly. 'Wait for you? What does
that mean, Charley? You never showed--anything to wait for--anything
special towards me.'

'O come, Baptista dear; come!'

'What I mean is, nothing definite,' she expostulated. 'I suppose you
liked me a little; but it seemed to me to be only a pastime on your part,
and that you never meant to make an honourable engagement of it.'

'There, that's just it! You girls expect a man to mean business at the
first look. No man when he first becomes interested in a woman has any
definite scheme of engagement to marry her in his mind, unless he is
meaning a vulgar mercenary marriage. However, I did at last mean an
honourable engagement, as you call it, come to that.'

'But you never said so, and an indefinite courtship soon injures a
woman's position and credit, sooner than you think.'

'Baptista, I solemnly declare that in six months I should have asked you
to marry me.'

She walked along in silence, looking on the ground, and appearing very
uncomfortable. Presently he said, 'Would you have waited for me if you
had known?' To this she whispered in a sorrowful whisper, 'Yes!'

The