hat kept
him from being pos-i-tive-ly pet-u-lent."

She seemed amused, I say, but an hour or so later, in her own room, she
called herself a goose and somebody else another, and glancing at the
mirror, caught two tears attempting to escape. She drove them back with
a vigorous stamp of the foot and proceeded to dress for a cold afternoon
walk among the quieted wonders of a resting city, without the Fairs, but
not wholly alone.

LIX.

THIS TIME SHE WARNS HIM

As Miss Garnet and her escort started forth upon this walk, I think you
would have been tempted to confirm the verdict of two men who, meeting
and passing them, concluded that the escort was wasting valuable time
when they heard him say,

"It did startle me to hear how lightly you regard what you call a
memorized religion."

But this mood soon passed. A gentleman and lady, presently overtaking
them, heard her confess, "I know I don't know as much as I think I do; I
only wish I knew as much as I don't." Whereat her escort laughed
admiringly, and during the whole subsequent two hours of their promenade
scarcely any observer noticed the slightness of their acquaintance.

Across the fields around Suez their conversation would have been
sprightly enough, I warrant. But as here they saw around them one and
another amazing triumph of industry and art, they grew earnest, spoke
exaltedly of this great age, and marvelled at the tangle of chances that
had thrown them here together. John called it, pensively, a most happy
fortune for himself, but Barbara in reply only invited his attention to
the beauty of the street vista behind them.

Half a square farther on he came out of a brown study.

"Miss Barb"--It was the first time he had ever said that, and though she
lifted her glance in sober inquiry, the music of it ran through all her
veins.

"--Miss Barb, isn't it astonishing, the speed with which acquaintance
can grow, under favorable conditions?"

"Is it?"

"Oh, well, no, it isn't. Only that's not its usual way."

"Isn't the usual way the best?"

"Oh--usually--yes! But there's nothing usual about this meeting of ours.
Miss Barb, my finding you and your friendship is as if I'd been lost at
midnight in a trackless forest and had all at once found a road. I only
wish"--he gnawed his lip--"I only wish these three last days had come to
me years ago. You might have saved me some big mistakes."

"No," Barbara softly replied, "I'm afraid not."

"I only me