"Oh, no. Any time will do."

"I'll come at once. I'm not busy."

"No. Late this afternoon. Father asked me to call up and make sure. He
wants to see you."

"Oh--not you?"

"I'm a business person," retorted she. "I know better than to annoy you,
as I've often said."

He knew it was foolish, tiresome; yet he could not resist the impulse to
say, "Now that I've heard your voice I can't stay away. I'll come over
to lunch."

Her answering voice was irritated. "Please don't. I'm cleaning house.
You'd be in the way."

He shrank and quivered like a boy who has been publicly rebuked. "I'll
come when you say," he replied.

"Not a minute before four o'clock."

"That's a long time--now you've made me crazy to see you."

"Don't talk nonsense. I must go back to work."

"What are you doing?" he asked, to detain her.

"Dusting and polishing. Molly did the sweeping and is cleaning windows
now."

"What have you got on?"

"How silly you are!"

"No one knows that better than I. But I want to have a picture of you to
look at."

"I've got on an old white skirt and an old shirt waist, both dirty, and
a pair of tennis shoes that were white once but are gray now, where they
aren't black. And I've got a pink chiffon rag tied round my hair."

"Pink is wonderful when you wear it."

"I look a fright. And my face is streaked--and my arms."

"Oh, you've got your sleeves rolled up. That's an important detail."

"You're making fun of me."

"No, I'm thinking of your arms. They are--ravishing."

"That's quite enough. Good-by."

And she rang off. He was used to her treating compliment and flattery
from him in that fashion. He could not--or was it would not?--understand
why. He had learned that she was not at all the indifferent and unaware
person in the matter of her physical charms he had at first fancied her.
On the contrary, she had more than her share of physical vanity--not
more than was her right, in view of her charms, but more than she could
carry off well. With many a secret smile he had observed that she
thought herself perfect physically. This did not repel him; it never
does repel a man--when and so long as he is under the enchantment of the
charms the woman more or less exaggerates. But, while he had often seen
women with inordinate physical vanity, so often that he had come to
regarding it as an essential part of feminine character, never before
had he seen one so content with her own good opinion of herself tha