. As a matter of fact,
I found out quite by accident, when she unconsciously quoted a passage
from the great master.'

I began to see light. So that was why Gladys had come up in such haste
the day following her introduction to William to borrow _Johnson's
Aphorisms_. Oh, hapless, artless William!

'I see now that you were quite right when you once remarked that you
feared you had lost your reason with your beard,' I remarked severely.
'Do let things grow again before it is too late.'

'Let what grow?' he asked.

'Everything. Moustache, beard and general air of fuzziness. It's the
best protection you can have, my poor fellow.'

He departed rather abruptly after that, seeming somewhat annoyed. I
could not understand what was making him so unusually touchy.

'Surely,' I said to Henry, 'even William isn't so blind as to let
himself be taken in by that little noodle of a Gladys.'

'Of course he isn't,' replied Henry vehemently, 'do you think a chap is
ever deceived by anything like that? He hates to be pounced on, so to
speak. Do you know, my dear, that one of the things that first
attracted you to me was your complete indifference to myself.'

'Indeed, Henry?' I said, with lowered eyes and modest mien.

'Yes. If you remember I was editing the _Gazette_ at the time I first
met you, and although you, as one of my contributors, often came up to
the office to see me, we remained for a long time on a purely business
footing.'

It is true Henry was an unconscionable time in coming to the point.
'Entirely business-like,' I acquiesced.

'When you called to see me to discuss a gross misstatement in one of
your articles (which you refused to acknowledge until I had sent for
you to put the matter clearly before you), you did not conduct yourself
like so many other girls who came to discuss their work with me. You
did not attempt to engage in a mild flirtation, make eyes, bend over me
as I glanced through the manuscript----'

'Oh, bad, bad girls,' I murmured. 'Do women behave like that with you,
Henry?'

'They _did_, my dear. I am speaking of the time before I was married.'

I smiled. What a comfort it is to have a Scotsman for a husband! He
is so solid and reliable regarding the opposite sex.

'You, however, employed none of these wiles,' he continued, 'and were
almost studiously cold and business-like. For a long time I thought I
should never interest you in myself--in fact, I know I took you very
m