st upon no acquaintance
at all, that he should even faintly expect her to grant it, and so on,
all the while leaning languishing upon his breast with all her weight.
Whereupon Mr. Middleton lost patience and with incisive sarcasm he
began:

"One would think that you who refuse this kiss were not the girl who
stands here within my arms, my lips saying this into her ears, her
cheek almost touching mine. Doubtless it is some one else. Pray tell
me, what great difference is there between kissing a stranger and
hugging him."

At these brutal, downright words, leaving the poor young thing nothing
to say, no little pretence even to herself that she had guarded the
proprieties, had comported herself circumspectly, leaving her with not
even a little rag of a claim that she had conducted herself with
seemly decorum, she sprang from him and began to cry. Whatever the
cause, Mr. Middleton could not look upon feminine unhappiness with
composure and here where he was himself responsible, he was indeed
smitten with keen remorse and hastening to comfort her, gathered her
into his arms and there he was abasing and condemning himself and
telling her what a dear, nice girl she was--and kissing away her
tears.

"Let me give you a piece of advice," he said, fifteen minutes later,
as he was about to release her and depart. "It is not best ever to let
a man hug you. Never," he said, pausing to imprint a lingering kiss
upon the girl's yielding lips, "never let a man kiss you again until
that moment when you shall become his affianced wife."

Mr. Middleton departed in that serene state of mind which the
consciousness of virtue bestows, for he had given the young woman
valuable advice that would doubtless be of advantage to her in the
future and he reflected upon this in much satisfaction as he fared
away with the eyes of the young woman watching him from where she
looked out of the parlor window.

Reaching into his right coat pocket to transfer the copper bottle to
the opposite pocket, in order that his coat might not be pulled out of
shape, as he grasped the neck, one of his fingers went right into the
mouth! The seal of Solomon was gone! A less resolute and quick-witted
person might have been alarmed, but reasoning that the seal must have
been knocked off during the fight at Mr. Smitz's and nothing had
happened since, he boldly examined the bottle. He could see a white
substance as he looked into it, and by the aid of a stick he fished