other things too. And if it was his attention she wanted, she should
have been satisfied, for she apparently had it, at first only the
interest of courtesy, afterwards something more; it even seemed,
before the end, as if she puzzled him a little, in spite of his years
and experience.

He found himself mentally contrasting the life at the Van Heigens', as
she described it, with that which he had imagined her to have led at
Marbridge, and, now that he talked to her, he could not find her exact
place in either.

"You must find Dutch conventionality rather trying," he said at last.

"I am not used to it yet," she answered; "when I am it will be no
worse than the conventionality at home."

He felt he was wrong in one of his surmises; clearly she was not
really Bohemian. "Surely," he said, "you have not found these absurd
rules and restrictions in England?"

"Not the same ones; we study appearances one way, and they do another;
but it comes to the same thing, so far as I am concerned. One day I
hope to be able to give it up and retire; when I do I shall wear
corduroy breeches and if I happen to be in the kitchen eating onions
when people come to see me, I shall call them in and offer them a
share."

"Rather an uncomfortable ambition, isn't that?" he inquired. "I am
afraid you will have to wait some time for its fulfilment, especially
the corduroy. I doubt if you will achieve that this side the grave,
though you might perhaps make a provision in your will to be buried in
it."

Julia laughed a little. "You think my family would object? They would;
but, you see, I should be retiring from them as well as from the
world, the corduroy might be part of my bulwarks."

"I don't think you could afford it even for that; do you think women
ever can afford that kind of disregard for appearances?"

"Plain ones can," she said; "it is the only compensation they have for
being plain; not much, certainly, seeing what they lose, but they have
it. When you can never look more than indifferent, it does not matter
how much less you look."

"That is a rather unusual idea," he remarked; "it appears sound in
theory, but in practice--"

"Sounder still," she answered him.

He laughed. "I'm afraid you won't make many converts here," he said,
"where nearly every woman is plain, and according to your experience,
every one, men and women too, think a great deal of looks; at all
events, correct ones."

"They do do that," she admitted; "