ne shouldn't take a fancy to
you,' said Gerald, smiling; 'only--to that extent--in so short a time.'

'I appealed to her pity, I think; she came in and took care of me, and
was really unspeakably kind. And she seemed to get tremendously
interested in me. But then, she seemed capable of getting tremendously
interested in lots of things. I've noticed that Americans often take
things very seriously.'

'And you became great pals?'

'Yes, I suppose we did.'

'She interested you?'

Helen smiled a little perplexedly, and lit a cigarette before
answering. 'Well, no; I can't say that she did that; but that, probably,
was my own fault.'

'Why didn't she interest you?' Gerald went on, taking a cigarette from
the case she offered. He was fond of such desultory pursuit of a
subject; he and Helen spent hours in idle exchanges of impression.

Helen's answer was hardly illuminating: 'She wasn't interesting.'

'It was rather interesting of her to take such an interest in you,' said
Gerald subtly.

'No.' Helen warmed to the theme. It had indeed perplexed her, and she
was glad to unravel her impressions to this understanding listener. 'No,
that's just what it wasn't; it might have been if one hadn't felt her a
person so easily affected. She had--how can I put it?--it seems brutal
when she is such a dear--but she had so little stuff in her; it was as
if she had to find it all the time in other things and people. She is
like a glass of water that would like to be wine, and she has no wine in
her; it could only be poured in, and there's not room for much. At best
she can only be _eau rougie_.'

Gerald laughed. 'How you see things, and say them! Poor Miss
Jakes!--that's her name, isn't it? She sounds tame.'

'She is tame.'

'Is she young, pretty?'

'Not young, about my age; not pretty, but it's a nice face; wistful,
with large, quite lovely eyes. She knows a lot about everything, and has
been everywhere, and has kept all her illusions intact--a queer mixture
of information and innocence. It's difficult to keep one's mind on what
she's saying; there is never any background to it. She wants something,
but she doesn't know whether it's what other people want or whether it's
what she wants, so that she can't want anything very definitely.'

Gerald still laughed. 'How you must have been taking her in!'

'I suppose I must have been, though I didn't know it. But I did like
her, you know. I liked her very much. A glass of water is