y don't
mean--nothing for the sake of flattery, or effect, for instance?"

"Oh dear me, yes, often."

"Who, for example?"

"Our cousin Katie. Why are you so suspicious and misanthropical?
There is your friend Mr. Hardy again; what do you say to him?"

"Well, I think you may have hit on an exception. But I maintain
the rule."

"You look as if I ought to object. But I sha'n't. It is no
business of mine if you choose to believe any such disagreeable
thing about your fellow-creatures."

"I don't believe anything worse about them than I do about
myself. I know that I can't do it."

"Well, I am very sorry for you."

"But I don't think I am any worse than my neighbours."

"I don't suppose you do. Who are your neighbors?"

"Shall I include you in the number?"

"Oh, by all means, if you like."

"But I may not mean that you are like the rest. The man who fell
among thieves, you know, had one good neighbor."

"Now, Cousin Tom," she said, looking up with sparkling eyes, "I
can't return the compliment. You meant to make me feel that I
_was_ like the rest--at least like what you say they are. You
know you did. And now you are just turning round, and trying to
slip out of it by saying what you don't mean."

"Well, Cousin Mary, perhaps I was. At any rate I was a great fool
for my pains. I might have known by this time that you would
catch me out fast enough."

"Perhaps you might. I didn't challenge you to set up your Palace
of Truth. But, if we are to live in it, you are not to say all
the disagreeable things and hear none of them."

"I hope not, if they must be disagreeable. But why should they
be? I can't see why you and I, for instance, should not say
exactly what we are thinking to one another without being
disagreeable."

"Well, I don't think you made a happy beginning just now."

"But I am sure we should all like one another the better for
speaking the truth."

"Yes; but I don't admit that I haven't been speaking the truth."

"You won't understand me. Have I said that you don't speak the
truth?"

"Yes, you said just now that I don't say what I think and mean.
Well, perhaps you didn't exactly say that, but that is what you
meant:"

"You are very angry, Cousin Mary. Let us wait till--"

"No, no. It was you who began, and I will not let you off now."

"Very well, then. I did mean something of the sort. It is better
to tell you than to keep it to myself."

"Yes; and now tell me your reasons," said