u're getting on toward forty, and you ought to quit," said Weil.
"Confound the women! Let them go."

"That's well enough to talk about," replied Boggs, gruffly. "How would
you like to follow your own advice?"

Weil uttered an exclamation.

"I? I have precious little to do with them, I assure you. For a man of
my correct habits I have the worst name of any one I know. Everybody
insinuates things about me, and they can prove nothing."

"We'll ask Isaac Leveson about that," sneered Boggs. "By-the-way, that
wouldn't be a bad place to take young Roseleaf to, when you get to
instructing him in earnest. I met the young fellow on the avenue last
night and walked around with him for a couple of hours. He's a darling!"

"Roseleaf?" cried both the other gentlemen, in one breath.

"To be sure. How the women stared at him! I couldn't blame them; his
waist isn't over thirty, and he's as handsome as--as I was at his age. I
told him he could have all the loveliness in New York at his feet, if he
liked."

Weil smiled significantly at Gouger.

"What did he reply to that?" he asked.

"Oh, he had an ideal in his head, and none of those we saw quite came up
to it; for I did get him to raise his eyes and look at the prettiest
ones. I drew out of him slowly that he would have nothing to do with a
girl unless she had red hair; that--"

Mr. Weil uttered a laugh so hearty that it attracted the attention of
everybody in the room. Mr. Boggs paused to inquire the cause of this
outbreak, but Archie assured him that something entirely out of the
present discussion had just occurred to him, which was to blame for his
impoliteness.

"A girl must have _Titian_ hair," repeated Mr. Boggs, accepting the
explanation, "or he would not consider her. He ruled out all the
striking blondes and brunettes, saying that he liked only those of a
medium shade. We came across one that answered these descriptions, an
exquisite little creature who looked as if she would swallow him could
she get the chance. And then there came out another idea. He would not
think of this fairy because she was so short. 'I want a woman five feet,
four inches tall,' he said, as if the article could be made to order, in
case the size did not happen to be in stock. Then, would you believe it,
he found a girl embracing every attribute he had mentioned. Her hair was
just the right shade, her height must have hit the mark exactly, her
complexion was medium. But no. She was too heav