and--and overyoung----"

"O Carus!"

"I meant no reproach," I said hastily. "A nectarine requires time, even
though the sunlight paints it so prettily in all its unripe, flawless
symmetry. And I have--I have lived all my life in sober company. My
father was old, my mother placid and saddened by the loss of all her
children save myself. I had few companions--none of my own age except
when we went to Albany, where I learned to bear myself in company. At
Johnson Hall, at Varick's, at Butlersbury, I was but a shy lad, warned
by my parents to formality, for they approved little of the gaiety that
I would gladly have joined in. And so I know nothing of women--nor did
I learn much in New York, where the surface of life is so prettily
polished that it mirrors, as you say, only one's own inquiring eyes."

I seated myself cross-legged on the floor, looking up at the sweet face
on the bed's edge framed by the chintz.

"Did you never conceive an affection?" she asked, watching me.

"Why, yes--for a day or two. I think women tire of me."

"No, you tire of them."

"Only when----"

"When what?"

"Nothing," I said quietly.

"Do you mean when they fall in love with you?" she asked.

"They don't. Some have plagued me to delight in my confusion."

"Like Rosamund Barry?"

I was silent.

"She," observed Elsin musingly, "was mad about you. No, you need not
laugh or shrug impatiently--_I_ know, Carus; she was mad to have you
love her! Do you think I have neither eyes nor ears? But you treated her
no whit better than you treated me. That I am certain of--did you?"

"What do you mean?"

"_Did_ you?"

"Did I do what?"

"Treat Rosamund Barry kinder than you did me?"

"In what way?"

"Did you kiss her?"

"Never!"

"Would you say 'Never!' if you had?"

"No, I should say nothing."

"I knew it!" she cried, laughing. "I was certain of it. But, mercy on
us, there were scores more women in New York--and I mean to ask you
about each one, Carus, each separate one--some time--but, oh, I am so
hungry now!"

I sprang to my feet, and walking into my chamber closed the door.

"Talk to me through the keyhole!" she called. "I shall tie my hair in a
club, and bathe me and clothe me very quickly. Are you there, Carus? Do
you hear what I say?"

So I leaned against the door and chatted on about Colonel Hamilton,
until I ventured to hint at some small word of praise for me from his
Excellency. With that she was at the door, all e