at Alice, and she shook her head as much to
say, 'It's no use for the present,' and I fled the place."

"M'm!" muttered John. "He must have been a nice traveling companion. Has
it been like that all the time?"

"Most of it," she said, "but not quite all, and this morning was rather
an exaggeration of the regular thing. But getting started on a journey
was usually pretty awful. Once we quite missed our train because he
couldn't make up his mind whether to put on a light overcoat or a heavy
one. I finally settled the question for him, but we were just too late."

"You must be a very amiable person," remarked John.

"Indeed, I am not," she declared, "but Julius is, and it's almost
impossible to be really put out with him, particularly in his condition.
I have come to believe that he can not help it, and he submits to my
bullying with such sweetness that even my impatience gives way."

"Have you three people been alone together all the time?" John asked.

"Yes," she replied, "except for four or five weeks. We visited some
American friends in Berlin, the Nollises, for a fortnight, and after our
visit to them they traveled with us for three weeks through South
Germany and Switzerland. We parted with them at Metz only about three
weeks since."

"How did Mr. Carling seem while you were all together?" asked John,
looking keenly at her.

"Oh," she replied, "he was more like himself than I have seen him for a
long time--since he began to break down, in fact."

He turned his eyes from her face as she looked up at him, and as he did
not speak she said suggestively, "You are thinking something you don't
quite like to say, but I think I know pretty nearly what it is."

"Yes?" said John, with a query.

"You think he has had too much feminine companionship, or had it too
exclusively. Is that it? You need not be afraid to say so."

"Well," said John, "if you put it 'too exclusively,' I will admit that
there was something of the sort in my mind, and," he added, "if you will
let me say so, it must at times have been rather hard for him to be
interested or amused--that it must have--that is to say--"

"Oh, _say_ it!" she exclaimed. "It must have been very _dull_ for him.
Is that it?"

"'Father,'" said John with a grimace, "'I can not tell a lie!'"

"Oh," she said, laughing, "your hatchet isn't very sharp. I forgive you.
But really," she added, "I know it has been. You will laugh when I tell
you the one particular resource