able; you are a happy man to have such an
annex to your household--even if she wasn't worth naming at the start."

"Amiable--who said she was amiable? Leave that to commonplace women and
plain everyday fellows like me. You can't expect that of her sort, Jim.
She can be very nice when she pleases. I suppose she has a heart; it has
never waked up yet. When it does, it will be a big one. We don't expect
the plebeian virtues of her."

"She has a conscience, I hope? If not, it might be better to go away,
and stay away. You ought not to keep dangerous compounds about the
house, Bob."

"She won't explode--though others may. A conscience? I think so. She
couldn't do a mean thing. She keeps a promise: she has more sense of
justice than most women. But you can't apply ordinary rules to her. She
is of the blood royal: the Princess, we call her. Can't you see, Jim?
You are man enough to take her measure, so far as any one can."

"I see her outside; it is worth coming here to see, if I were an artist
or an aesthete. She has deigned to show me no more as yet."

"It is all of a piece: the rest matches that, as you will see in time.
There is but one Clarice."

"Bob, you are different from last night. I believe you are telling the
truth now."

"She sobers you. When you have been with her, when you think of her, it
is as if you were in church--only a good deal more so."

"Very convenient and edifying, to have such a private chapel in one's
house. Bob, in this mood I can trust you. Tell me one thing: why did you
never mention her to me?"

"She doesn't wish me to talk of her to strangers."

"And now the prohibition is removed?"

"You are not a stranger now. She knows you, and you have seen her."

"Well, you are loyal. Does she appreciate such fidelity?"

"We are very good friends. From childhood we have been more together
than most brothers and sisters. More or less, I have always been to her
as I am now. She is used to me. I do not ask too much of her. Don't
fancy that I am in her confidence, or any one: she has a royal reserve.
See here, Jim; I am making you one of the family."

"I understand. I must ask you one thing: why did you bring me here, to
expose me to all this?"

"You needed a change, Jim, as you half owned just now; almost any change
would be for the better. I wanted you to see the world again: there is
in it nothing fairer or richer than Clarice."

"You go on as if she were a saint; and yet you say she's no