t me. That alters the case, eh?'--with a
smile meant to be propitiatory, but really too triumphant for my taste.

'Under those circumstances I could wish that you had less narrow views of
women's work,' I returned, with some warmth.

He opened his eyes so widely at this that at any other moment I should
have been amused.

'By all that is wonderful, it is the first time I have been accused of
narrowness.' And here he gave a gruff little laugh. 'I think I had better
leave yon alone, Miss Garston, and label you "dangerous." There is a hot
sparkle in your eyes that warns me to keep off the premises. "Trespassers
will be taken up." I begin to feel uncomfortable. Cunliffe has put me _en
parole_, and I dare not break bounds. Can you manage to sit in
the same room a little longer with such a heretic?'

'Heretics can be converted.'

He shrugged his shoulders at this.

'Not such a hardened sceptic as myself. Now, look here, Miss Garston.
I will say something civil. I believe you are in earnest; so it shall be
_pax_ between us; and I will promise not to thwart you. As for women's
mission in general, I believe their principal mission is not to stop at
home and mind their own business; in fact, home and homely duties are the
last straws that break the back of the emancipated woman.' And with these
audacious words Mr. Hamilton stirred the fire again with prodigious
energy. Happily, Uncle Max came into the room at that moment; so I was
spared any reply.

Max must have thought that I was suspiciously glad to see him, for he
looked from one to the other rather anxiously.

'Sorry to be so late, Ursula; but I met Pardoe, and he entrapped me into
an argument. Well, how have you and my friend Hamilton got on together?'

I turned away without answering, but Mr. Hamilton responded, in a
melancholy voice--

'I have been suppressed, like the dormouse in Alice's teapot. There is
very little left of me. I had no idea your niece had such a taste for
argument, Cunliffe. I take it rather unkindly that I was not warned off
the track.'

'So you two have been quarrelling.' And Uncle Max looked a little vexed.
'What a fellow you are, Hamilton, for stroking a person the wrong way! Of
course Ursula has believed all your cross-grained remarks?'

'Swallowed them whole and entire; and a fit of moral indigestion is the
result. Well, I must be going; but first let me administer a palliative,
Miss Garston. What time do you have breakfast? If it be