d. "For a good, solid eighteen
months, now, I have displayed the accumulated patience of innumerable
asses."

"Of course, I see what you're driving at," she continued hastily. "But
it is not original. It's just every man's stock argument."

"If it bears the hall-mark of hoary antiquity, so much the better. I
entertain a reverence for precedent. And honestly, as common sense
goes, I am not ashamed of that of my sex."

Miss St. Quentin resumed her walk.

"You really think it stands in one's way," she said reflectively, "you
really think it a disadvantage, to be a woman?"

"Oh! good Lord!" Mr. Quayle ejaculated, softly yet with an air so
humorously aghast that it could leave no doubt as to the nature of his
sentiments. Then he cursed himself for a fool. His shoes indeed had
made a mighty creaking! He expected an explosion of scornful wrath. He
admitted he deserved it. It did not come.

Miss St. Quentin looked at him, for a moment, almost piteously. He
fancied her mouth quivered and that her eyes filled with tears. Then
she turned and swung away with her long, easy, even stride. Mentally
the young man took himself by the throat, conscience-stricken at having
humiliated her, at having caused her to fall, even momentarily, from
the height of her serene, maidenly dignity. For once he became
absolutely uncritical, careless of appearances. He fairly ran after her
along the platform.

"Dear Miss St. Quentin," he called to her, in tones of most persuasive
apology.

But Honoria's moment of piteousness was past. She had recovered all her
habitual lazy and gallant grace when he came up with her.

"No--no," she said. "Hear me. I began this rather foolish conversation.
I laid myself open to--well to a snubbing. I got one, anyhow!"

"In mercy don't rub it in!" Mr. Quayle murmured contritely.

"But I did," Honoria returned. "Now it's over and I'm going to pick up
the pieces and put them back in their places--just where they were
before."

"But I protest!--I hailed a new combination. I discover in myself no
wild anxiety to have the pieces put back just where they were before."

"Oh! yes, you do," Honoria declared. "At least, you certainly will when
I explain it to you."--She paused.--"You see," she said, "it is like
this. Living with and watching Cousin Katherine, I have come to know
all that side of things at its very finest."

"Forgive me.--It? What? May I recall to you the fact of the Philistine
nursery?"

The young