, you compel us to give up everything
we possess, in order that you may have the somewhat equivocal merit of
restoring back a small portion of what you take."

"True, and this, I am afraid, Miss Lucy, however by the admission I
forfeit for my sex all reputation for chivalry, is after all the precise
relationship between us. The very fact that the requisitions made by our
sex produce immediate concession from yours, establishes the dependence
of which you complain."

"You mistake me, sir. I complain not of the robbery---far from it; for,
if we do lose the possession of a commodity so valuable, we are at least
freed from the responsibility of keeping it. The gentlemen, nowadays,
seldom look to us for intellectual gladiatorship; they are content that
our weakness should shield us from the war. But, I conceive the reproach
of our poverty to come unkindly from those who make us poor. It is of
this, sir, that I complain."

"You are just, and justly severe, Miss Munro; but what else have you to
expect? Amazon-like, your sex, according to the quaint old story, sought
the combat, and were not unwilling to abide the conditions of the
warfare. The taunt is coupled with the triumph--the spoil follows the
victory--and the captive is chained to the chariot-wheel of his
conqueror, and must adorn the march of his superior by his own shame and
sorrows. But, to be just to myself, permit me to say, that what you have
considered a reproach was in truth designed as a compliment. I must
regret that my modes of expression are so clumsy, that, in the utterance
of my thought, the sentiment so changed its original shape as entirely
to lose its identity. It certainly deserved the graceful swordsmanship
which foiled it so completely."

"Nay, sir," said the animated girl, "you are bloodily-minded toward
yourself, and it is matter of wonder to me how you survive your own
rebuke. So far from erring in clumsy phrase, I am constrained to admit
that I thought, and think you, excessively adroit and happy in its
management. It was only with a degree of perversity, intended solely to
establish our independence of opinion, at least for the moment, that I
chose to mistake and misapprehend you. Your remark, clothed in any other
language, could scarcely put on a form more consistent with your
meaning."

Ralph bowed at a compliment which had something equivocal in it, and
this branch of the conversation having reached its legitimate close, a
pause of some