w you are, Ted!"

"Am I?"--ruefully. "I don't think I used to be. I never remember being
jealous before."

"No? I am glad to hear it."

"Why?"

"Because"--with an adorable glance and a faint pressure of his arm--"it
proves to me you have never _loved_ before."

This tender insinuation blots out all remaining vapors, leaving the
atmosphere clear and free of clouds for the rest of their walk, which
lasts till almost evening. Just before they reach the house, Luttrell
says, with hesitation:

"I have something to say to you, but I am afraid if I do say it you
will be angry."

"Then _don't_ say it," says Miss Massereene, equably. "That is
about the most foolish thing one can do. To make a person angry
unintentionally is bad enough, but to know you are going to do it, and
to say so, has something about it rash, not to say impertinent. If you
are fortunate enough to know the point in the conversation that is sure
to rouse me to wrath, why not carefully skirt round it?"

"Because I lose a chance if I leave it unsaid; and you differ so widely
from most girls--it may not provoke _you_."

"Now you compel me to it," says Molly, laughing. "What! do you think I
could suffer myself to be considered a thing apart? Impossible. No one
likes to be thought odd or eccentric except rich old men, and
Bohemians, and poets; therefore I insist on following closely in my
sisters' footsteps, and warn you I shall be in a furious passion the
moment you speak, whether or not I am really annoyed. Now go on if you
dare?"

"Well, look here," begins Luttrell, in a conciliating tone.

"There is not the slightest use in your beating about the bush, Teddy,"
says Miss Massereene, calmly. "I am going to be angry, so do not waste
time in diplomacy."

"Molly, how provoking you are!"

"No! Am I? Because I wish to be like other women?"

"A hopeless wish, and a very unwise one."

"'Hopeless!' And why, pray?" With a little uplifting of the straight
brows and a little gleam from under the long curled lashes.

"Because," says her lover, with fond conviction, "you are so infinitely
superior to them, that they would have to be born all over again before
you could bring yourself to fall into their ways."

"What! every woman in the known world?"

"Every one of them, I am eternally convinced."

"Teddy," says Molly, rubbing her cheek in her old caressing fashion
against his sleeve, and slipping her fingers into his, "you may go on.
Say anything yo