r father's house?"

Leicester laughed.

"Because her father has ceased to invite me," he replied. "Do you know
why? I'll tell you. The devil got hold of me one night and I trod on the
old man's moral and religious corns. I knocked the sawdust out of his
dolls. I was feeling a bit cynical, and I attacked the motives and
morals of religious people. Now, then, you know. But I never proposed to
Miss Blackstone; if I had, I should have been accepted."

"It's good to have a high opinion of one's self."

"Or a poor opinion of women," replied Leicester.

"What has that to do with the question?"

"Only this. Women don't trouble about morals. What women want in a
husband is a man that shall be talked about; a man who is courted and
petted; a man who is quoted in the papers. Given position, and notoriety
on the lines I have mentioned, and women don't trouble about the other
things."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because I know."

"How do you know?"

"I am thirty years of age, and I have kept my eyes open during these
last ten years--that's all. You talk about my religious views and my
ideas on marriage, and what you call my cynicism generally. But let the
best of the women believe that a man will give them the position they
covet and then he can believe what he likes and do what he likes. No, my
dear, pious friends, you need not fear either about me or my future as
long as you believe in your views about what is called my abilities."

"That's a libel on women," said Sprague.

"I'm willing to put my views to a test," replied Leicester.

"What do you mean?"

"My language is pretty plain," replied Leicester.

Each of the other men felt the influence of Leicester's stronger
personality, and each of them resented it at the same time. They felt
almost angry that the man whom they had been pitying as a drunkard
should so coolly hold them at bay.

"It is a poor thing to say you'll put your views to the test, when you
know it cannot be done," remarked Sprague.

"Look here, my dear, exemplary friends, who are so anxious for my moral
reclamation," said Leicester in his quiet, mocking tone, "I've made a
statement, and I'll stand by it. I'm not a marrying man, as you know;
still I am willing to sacrifice my own feelings for the good of my
fellows. So, then, pick out your most pious and high-principled young
woman; Sunday-school teacher preferred, warranted to be sound in
doctrine, and having a proper horror of men like myself