ke the attempt to explain anything to me.
Don't try to reconcile your frankness now with your pretense then,
because you'll certainly make a muddle of it, and because no such
attempt is necessary to be made to me. I know something of the girl and
her moods--not a great deal, perhaps, but enough to prevent my doing you
an injustice. You are perfectly consistent, my Phyllis."

"Oh, consistent?"

"Perfectly consistent with your nature as a girl. It is the nature of
a girl to change with every wind that blows. It is only the female prig
who acts consistently under all circumstances. In a world the leading
of which is its men, inconsistency is the best nature of a healthy girl
made to be loved by men. One doesn't sneer at the weathercock because
one hour it points to the north and the next to the east. 'Tis its
nature to. 'Tis our nature to change with every breeze of man that bears
down on us. That's why they love us and detest the prigs. Here we are at
your house. I hope you don't keep your maid up for you. I would scorn to
keep a girl out of her bed for the sake of brushing my hair. Good-night,
dear, and dream of the paradise that awaits you--a paradise in which
there are birds to be shot, birds of paradise to make feather fans for
women who hold them to their bosoms one minute, and the next dispose of
them to Mr. and Mme. Abednego with last season's opera wrap. There's a
parable for you to sleep upon."

"And you--you?" cried Phyllis.

"Oh, as for me, I'll, I'll--well, I think I'll put my meteor fan on
the pillow beside my own to-night. I'm still newfangled with my toy
and--well, I'm a woman."

At this instant the carriage pulled up to Mr. Ayrton's hall door and the
footman jumped down from the box to run up the steps and ring the bell.

"Good-night," said Phyllis. "I enjoyed my evening greatly, and the drive
home best of all."

Ella Linton's laugh was smothered among the delicate floss of the
feathers which she held up to her face.

CHAPTER X.

IT IS THE PRICE OF BLOOD.

Phyllis had a good deal to think of after she had sat for half an
hour with her father in the room where they worked together for the
discomfiture of the opposite party, and had given him some account
of the representation of the play at the Parthenon. Her father was
delighted to find her in high spirits. So many people come back from the
theater looking glum and worn out, yawning and mumbling when asked what
they have seen and what it h