you dislike him."

She smiled pleasantly, as if my supposed dislike of Mr. Sax rather
amused her. What "the ruling passion" may be among men, I cannot presume
to consider. My own sex, however, I may claim to understand. The
ruling passion among women is Conceit. My ridiculous notion of my
own consequence was wounded in some way. I assumed a position of the
loftiest indifference.

"Really, ma'am," I said, "I can't undertake to answer for any impression
that Mr. Sax may have formed. We met by the merest accident. I know
nothing about him."

Mrs. Fosdyke eyed me slyly, and appeared to be more amused than ever.

"He is a very odd man," she admitted, "but I can tell you there is a
fine nature under that strange surface of his. However," she went on,
"I am forgetting that he forbids me to talk about him in your presence.
When the opportunity offers, I shall take my own way of teaching you two
to understand each other: you will both be grateful to me when I have
succeeded. In the meantime, there is a third person who will be sadly
disappointed to hear that you know nothing about Mr. Sax."

"May I ask, ma'am, who the person is?"

"Can you keep a secret, Miss Morris? Of course you can! The person is
Miss Melbury."

(Miss Melbury was a dark woman. It cannot be because I am a fair woman
myself--I hope I am above such narrow prejudices as that--but it is
certainly true that I don't admire dark women.)

"She heard Mr. Sax telling me that you particularly disliked him," Mrs.
Fosdyke proceeded. "And just as you appeared in the hall, she was asking
me to find out what your reason was. My own opinion of Mr. Sax, I ought
to tell you, doesn't satisfy her; I am his old friend, and I present him
of course from my own favorable point of view. Miss Melbury is anxious
to be made acquainted with his faults--and she expected you to be a
valuable witness against him."

Thus far we had been walking on. We now stopped, as if by common
consent, and looked at one another.

In my previous experience of Mrs. Fosdyke, I had only seen the more
constrained and formal side of her character. Without being aware of my
own success, I had won the mother's heart in winning the goodwill of her
children. Constraint now seized its first opportunity of melting away;
the latent sense of humor in the great lady showed itself, while I
was inwardly wondering what the nature of Miss Melbury's extraordinary
interest in Mr. Sax might be. Easily penetrating my