else."

"I do often, and we did this morning," he replied, as they passed out
through the maze of tables and orange-trees that covered the terrace
before the hotel.

"I should have said 'no one who is anybody.'"

He looked at her, a sadly puzzled trouble in his eyes.

"Is it a joke you make there," he asked, "or but your _argot_?"

"I don't know," she said, unfurling her parasol; "the question that I am
putting to myself just now is, why did not you raise this for me instead
of allowing me to do it for myself?"

He looked at her fixedly.

"Why should I do so? or is _that_ a joke?"

"No, I asked that in dead earnest."

"In dead--in dead--" he stammered hopelessly; "oh," he exclaimed,
"perhaps it is that I am really stupid, after all."

"No, no," she laughed; "it is I that am behaving badly. It amuses me to
tease you by using words that you do not understand."

"But that is not very nice of you," he said, smiling. "Why do you want
to tease me?"

"I don't know, but I do."

He laughed lightly.

"We amuse ourselves together, _n'est-ce pas_?" he asked. "It is like
children to laugh and not know why. I find such pleasure very pleasant.
One cannot be always wise--above all, with a woman."

"I do not want to be wise," she said, as they joined the promenading
crowd; "I much prefer to have my clothes fit well."

Then he laughed outright.

"_Vous etes si drole!_" he said apologetically.

"Oh, I don't mind your laughing," she said, "but I do wish that you
would walk on the other side."

"The other side of the street?" he asked, with surprise.

"No, no; the other side of me."

"Why should I not be on this side as well as on that?"

"Because that's the wrong one to be on."

"It is not! I am on the very right place."

"No; you should be between the lady and the street."

"Why?" he demanded, as he raised his hat to some one.

"To protect her--me."

"To protect you how? Nothing will come up out of the lake to hurt you."
Then he raised his hat to some people that she bowed to.

"It isn't that, it is that the outside is where the man should walk.
It's the custom. It's his proper place."

"No, it is not. I am proper where I am; I would be improper if I was
over there."

"In America men always walk on the outside."

"But we are not in America, we are in Lucerne, and that is Europe, and
for Europe I am right. _Mon Dieu_, do you think that I do not know!"

Rosina shrugged her shoulders.

"I am really