alone he began to
exhibit signs of acute mental distress, and to my astonishment burst
out, 'Mrs. Warrington, there is something I wanted to--er--ask you.
You are a woman for whom I have a profound respect; though you are
inclined by character to be _un peu moqueuse_, you have, I feel, an
exceedingly tender heart.'

I felt uneasy. 'Yes, William, it is tender--but not for everybody,' I
added warningly. Really, it was going to be very awkward if he, in his
elephantine way, had conceived an infatuation for me. My conscience
was perfectly clear--I had not encouraged him in any way, but
nevertheless I did not wish to see him suffer from unrequited
affection. It would be so awkward in many ways. William, even in his
sane moods, has a dreadful habit of knocking things over. If the
abstraction of the lover descended upon him, it was going to have a
dire effect on our household goods.

'Because your heart is tender,' he pursued, 'you will be able to
realize the difficulty of my--er--you can better understand the
sufferings of others. Do you think an ill-placed affection can be
combated--that is, in time, be utterly stamped out?'

'I do, William,' I said firmly, 'but it must be stamped effectively,
you understand. No half measures, you know.'

'Yes, yes, I quite see that,' he said eagerly. 'Then do you think in
such a case it would help matters if a man--if one of the parties, I
mean--went right away. You know the adage, "Out of sight out of mind"?'

I pondered. It would, I knew, be a great denial to William if he was
debarred from coming about our place--almost the only home he had ever
known. Henry, too, would be lost with no one to argue with. If you
want to manage a Scotsman properly see that he gets plenty of argument,
and he'll rarely develop any other vice. No, the pair must not be
separated.

'There is another adage, William, which says, "Absence makes the heart
grow fonder,"' I said, 'so I think, after all, you--I mean he, had
better stay.'

William looked relieved. 'You think that I--er--I mean one--ought to
face it?'

'I am sure one should,' I acquiesced.

William pressed my hand gratefully, and I sighed as I examined his
physiognomy in the hope of finding one attractive feature. I sighed
again as I finished my inspection. What a pity, I thought, that he had
not just a little dash about him, even the merest _soupcon_ of
fascination, in order to make the situation interesting. He was still