ad been something more than a
fool. Then, drawing herself up to her full height--barely five feet in
her heels,--she answered him with an attempt at hauteur that quite
missed fire.

"Since you are so _considerate_ of Colonel Mayhew's feelings, I only
wonder it has not occurred to you that your conduct during the past two
months has been little short of dishonourable?"

"Dishonourable?" His eyes flashed. "_Mais comment_?"

"You have given every one in Dalhousie the impression that you were--in
love with Miss Mayhew."

His relief was obvious.

"Naturally, my dear lady. For I _am_ in love with her. How could a
man, and an artist, be anything else? But marriage--no----" He shook
his head decisively. "That is another pair of sleeves. Women are
adorable. But they are terrible monopolists; and, frankly, I have no
talent for the domesticities. As a lover, I am well enough. But as a
husband--believe me, in six months I should drive a woman distracted!
Ask Quita. She knows. If I have given Miss Mayhew cause to regret her
kindness to me, I am inconsolable; though, in any case, I can never
regret the privilege of having known, and--loved her."

Throughout this ingenious jumble of egoism and gallantry, his listener
had been freezing visibly. On the last word she compressed her mouth
to a mere line, and stabbed the unrepentant sinner with her eyes; since
it was unhappily impossible to stab him with a hat-pin, which she would
infinitely have preferred.

"I have never in my _life_ heard any man express such improper ideas
upon a serious subject," she remarked with icy emphasis. "And I am
_quite_ thankful that your peculiar views prevent you from wishing to
marry my daughter."

"_Bien_! Then we are of one mind after all," Maurice answered
cheerfully. "And since we understand each other, may I at least be
permitted to see Miss Mayhew before I go?"

"See her? Certainly _not_. Really, Mr Maurice, your effrontery
astounds me! Understand, please, that from to-day there is an _end_ of
your free-and-easy French intimacies! Colonel Mayhew and I have to
consider her good name and her future happiness; and we cannot allow
you, or any man, to endanger either."

Michael shrugged his shoulders. His disappointment was keener than he
cared to show; but this hopeless little woman, with her bourgeois point
of view, was obviously blind and deaf to common-sense or reason.

"I would not for the world endanger Miss Mayhe