oration, but I must say
that yours is original."

"If it's original to be desperate when the woman you worship drives
you to despair----"

There was another little comic grimace, though less comic than the
first time. "Oh, yes, I know. It's always the woman whom a man
worships that's in the wrong. I've noticed that. Men are never
impossible--all of their own accord."

"I could be as tame as a cat if----"

"If it wasn't for me. Thank you, Rash. I said just now I was fond of
you, and I should have to be to--to stand for all the----"

"I'm not blaming you, Barbe. I'm only----"

"Thanks again. The day you're not blaming me is certainly one to be
marked with a white stone, as the Romans used to say. But if it comes
to blaming any one, Rash, after what happened yesterday----"

"What happened yesterday wasn't begun by me. It would never have
entered my mind to do the crazy thing I did, if you hadn't positively
and finally--as I thought--flung me down. I think you must do me that
justice, Barbe--that justice, at the least."

"Oh, I do you justice enough. I don't see that you can complain of
that. It seems to me too that I temper justice with mercy to a degree
that--that most people find ridiculous."

"By most people I suppose you mean your aunt."

"Oh, do leave Aunt Marion out of it. You can't forgive the poor thing
for not liking you. Well, she doesn't, and I can't help it. She thinks
you're a----"

"A fool--as you were polite enough to say just now."

She spread her hands apart in an attitude of protestation. "Well, if I
did, Rash, surely you must admit that I had provocation."

"Oh, of course. The wonder is that with the provocation you can----"

"Forgive you, and try to patch it up again after this frightful gash
in the agreement. Well, it _is_ a wonder. I don't believe that many
girls----"

"I only want you to understand, Barbe, that the gash in the agreement
was made, not by what I did, but what you did. If you hadn't sent me
to the devil, I shouldn't have been in such a hurry to go there."

She was off. "Yes, there you are again. Always me! I'm the one! You
may be the gunpowder, the perfectly harmless gunpowder, but it would
never blow up if I didn't come as the match. _I_ make all the
explosions. _I_ set you crazy. _I_ send you to the devil. _I_ make you
go and marry a girl you never laid eyes on in your life before."

So it was the same old scene all over again, till both were exhausted,
and she h