thinking about. That's the surest
indication, isn't it? And I want to know what you're thinking about. I
feel as though I'd given you too many additional burdens down town,
that you may tire this summer."

"Oh, you needn't worry. I'm quite strong."

"I want you to lay out some definite work that I can do, not merely
giving money, but myself, my own strength and energy." He laughed.
"You know I'm really thinking of asking you to establish a mission for
men only, with _me_ as the first patient. It does seem to straighten
me out somehow, just being with you--keeps me from thinking crooked."

"_Do_ you think crooked, Jerry?"

"Yes, often. Things bother me. Then I'm like a child. You've no idea
of the vast abyss of my ignorance."

"But you _mustn't_ think crooked. I won't have it."

"I can't help it, sometimes. People aren't always what you expect 'em
to be. I ought to understand better by this time, but I don't."

"People aren't like books, Jerry. You're sure of books. But with
people, you can turn the same page again and again and the printing is
different every time."

"People _do_ change, don't they?"

"Yes, and the pages are rather smudgy here and there, but you'll learn
to read them some day. The office will help you, Jerry, because
business people _have_ to think straight or be repudiated. You ought
to go to the office every day and work--work whether you like it or
not. You've got too much money. It's dangerous. You're like a colt
just out in the pasture, all hocks and skittishness. Work is the only
thing for that. It may be tiresome but you've got to stick at it if it
kills you."

"I suppose you're right," he muttered.

"Jerry," she went on rapidly, and I think with a twinkle of mischief
in her eye, "all of us have streaks of other people in us. I have,
lots of 'em. Sometimes I wonder which part of me is other people and
which is me. I think you've even got more different kinds of people in
you than I have. Students, philosophers, woodsmen, prize fighters--"

"Una!"

"I must. Everything, almost everything you've been and done I like
except--"

"Oh, don't Una--"

"I've got to. You wanted to clear things up between us. That's one of
the things we've got to clear up. I don't understand the psychology of
the prize ring and I'm not sure that I'd care to understand it. I know
that you are strong in body. You should be glad of that, but not so
glad as to be vain of it. One doesn't boast of the gifts of