tle untold sums upon her."

"Did he? What a brute!"

"Why?"

"Never mind. You've not seen him. I'm glad he found Sarah wasn't for
sale. But doesn't all this look as if it were Peter, after all?"

"If only I could think she were in earnest," Lady Mary said again.
"But he is such a boy. She has three times his cleverness in some
ways, and three times his experience, though she is younger than he. I
suppose women mature much earlier than men. It galls my pride when she
orders him about, and laughs at him. But he--he doesn't understand."

"Perhaps," said John, slowly, "he understands better than you think.
Each generation has a freemasonry of its own. I must confess I have
heard scraps of chatter and chaff in ballrooms and theatres which have
filled me with amazement, wondering how it could be possible that
such poor stuff should pass muster as conversation, or coquetry, or
gallantry, with the youths and maidens of to-day. But when I have
observed further, instead of an offended fair, or a disillusioned
swain, behold! two young heads close together, two young faces
sparkling with smiles and satisfaction. And the older person, who
would fatuously join in with a sensible remark, spoils all the
enjoyment. The fact is, the secret of real companionship is not
quality, but equality. There's a punning platitude for you."

"It may be a platitude, but I am beginning to discover that what are
called platitudes by the young are biting truths to the old," said
Lady Mary. "I've felt it a thousand times. Words come so easily to my
lips when I'm speaking to you, I am so certain you will understand and
respond. But with Peter, I sometimes feel as though I were dumb or
stupid. Perhaps you've been too--too kind; you've understood too
quickly. I've been too ready to believe that you've found me--"

"Everything I wanted to find you," interrupted John, tenderly; "and
that was something quite out of the common."

She smiled and shook her head. "I am ready to believe all the nice
things you can say, as fast as you can say them, when I am with _you_"
she said, with a raillery rather mournful than gay. "But when I am
with Peter, I seem to realize dreadfully that I'm only a middle-aged
woman of average capacity, and with very little knowledge of the
world. He does his best to teach me. That's funny, isn't it?"

"It's very like--a very young man," said John, gently.

"You mustn't think I'm mocking at my boy--like Sarah," she said
vehement