ne chapter."

"It shall be done. I see it--I see the whole thing--an elegant brochure
and well within my power. I am fired with the thought. There is only one
objection, however."

"None in the world. I see you know just what I'm after--a little
pamphlet well illustrated."

"The objection is that Estelle Waldron would do it a thousand times
better than I can. She has a more modern outlook and a more modern
touch. I feel confident that with me to supply the matter, she would
produce a much more attractive and readable work."

Raymond considered.

"I suppose she would. I hadn't thought of her."

"Believe me, she would succeed to admiration. For your sake as well as
mine, she would produce a little masterpiece."

"She'd do anything to please you, we all know; but I've no right to
bother her with details of business. Of course, if you do it, it is a
commission and you would name your honorarium, Uncle Ernest."

The old man laughed.

"We'll see--we'll see. Perhaps I should ask too high a price. But
Estelle will not be so grasping. And as to your right to bother her with
the details of business, anything she can do for you is a very great
privilege to her."

"I believe I owe her more than a man can ever pay a woman, already."

"Most men are insolvent to the other sex. Woman's noble tradition is to
give more than she gets, and let us off the reckoning, quite well
knowing it beyond our feeble powers to cry quits with her."

Raymond was moved at this challenge, for in the light that Estelle threw
upon them, women interested him more to-day than they had for ten years.

"One takes old Arthur's daughter for granted rather too much," he said;
"we always take good women for granted too much, I suppose. It's the
other sort who look out we shan't take them for granted, but at their
own valuation. Estelle--she's so many-sided--difficult, too, in some
things."

"She is," admitted Ernest. "And just for this reason. She always argues
on her own basis of perfect ingenuous honesty. She assumes certain
rational foundations for all human relations; and if such bases really
existed, then it would be the best possible world, no doubt, and we
should all do to our neighbour as we would have him do to us. But the
Golden Rule doesn't actuate the bulk of mankind, unfortunately. Men and
women are not as good as Estelle thinks them."

Raymond agreed eagerly.

"You've hit it," he said. "It is just that. She's right in theory every