mely cynical! I am almost inclined
to believe that you positively hate women."

"Oh, by no means! Nothing so strong as hatred," I said, coolly, as I
peeled and divided a fine peach as a finish to my morning's meal.
"Hatred is a strong passion--to hate well one must first have loved.
No, no--I do not find women worth hating--I am simply indifferent to
them. They seem to me merely one of the burdens imposed on man's
existence--graceful, neatly packed, light burdens in appearance, but in
truth, terribly heavy and soul-crushing."

"Yet many accept such burdens gayly!" interrupted Ferrari, with a
smile. I glanced at him keenly.

"Men seldom attain the mastery over their own passions," I replied;
"they are in haste to seize every apparent pleasure that comes in their
way, Led by a hot animal impulse which they call love, they snatch at a
woman's beauty as a greedy school-boy snatches ripe fruit--and when
possessed, what is it worth? Here is its emblem"--and I held up the
stone of the peach I had just eaten--"the fruit is devoured--what
remains? A stone with a bitter kernel."

Ferrari shrugged his shoulders.

"I cannot agree with you, count," he said; "but I will not argue with
you. From your point of view you may be right--but when one is young,
and life stretches before you like a fair pleasure-ground, love and the
smile of woman are like sunlight falling on flowers! You too must have
felt this--in spite of what you say, there must have been a time in
your life when you also loved!"

"Oh, I have had my fancies, of course!" I answered, with an indifferent
laugh. "The woman I fancied turned out to be a saint--I was not worthy
of her--at least, so I was told. At any rate, I was so convinced of her
virtue and my own unworthiness--that--I left her."

He looked surprised. "An odd reason, surely, for resigning her, was it
not?"

"Very odd--very unusual--but a sufficient one for me. Pray let us talk
of something more interesting--your pictures, for instance. When may I
see them?"

"When you please," he answered, readily--"though I fear they are
scarcely worth a visit. I have not worked much lately. I really doubt
whether I have any that will merit your notice."

"You underrate your powers, signor," I said with formal politeness.
"Allow me to call at your studio this afternoon. I have a few minutes
to spare between three and four o'clock, if that time will suit you."

"It will suit me admirably," he said, with a look of