uppressed emotion. 'You didn't come here to talk about him, I'm sure.
Let us dismiss him.'

"'Well,' he replied, 'in a certain roundabout way it is slightly
connected with him. That is really my excuse for inflicting the subject
upon you. You are the only man I _can_ speak to about it--if I shall not
bore you?'

"'Not in the least,' I said. 'I am most interested.' As he still
hesitated, I asked him point-blank what it was.

"He appeared embarrassed. 'It is really very absurd of me,' he said,
while the faintest suspicion of pink crossed his usually colourless face;
'but I feel I must talk to somebody about it. The fact is, my dear Mac,
I am in love.'

"'Capital!' I cried; 'I'm delighted to hear it.' (I thought it might
make a man of him.) 'Do I know the lady?'

"'I am inclined to think you must have seen her,' he replied; 'she was
with me on the pier at Yarmouth that evening you met me.'

"'Not 'Liza!' I exclaimed.

"'That was she,' he answered; 'Miss Elizabeth Muggins.' He dwelt
lovingly upon the name.

"'But,' I said, 'you seemed--I really could not help noticing, it was so
pronounced--you seemed to positively dislike her. Indeed, I gathered
from your remark to a friend that her society was distinctly distasteful
to you.'

"'To Smith,' he corrected me. 'What judge would that howling little
blackguard be of a woman's worth! The dislike of such a man as that is a
testimonial to her merit!'

"'I may be mistaken,' I said; 'but she struck me as a bit common.'

"'She is not, perhaps, what the world would call a lady,' he admitted;
'but then, my dear Mac, my opinion of the world is not such as to render
_its_ opinion of much value to me. I and the world differ on most
subjects, I am glad to say. She is beautiful, and she is good, and she
is my choice.'

"'She's a jolly enough little girl,' I replied, 'and, I should say,
affectionate; but have you considered, Smythe, whether she is quite--what
shall we say--quite as intellectual as could be desired?'

"'Really, to tell the truth, I have not troubled myself much about her
intellect,' he replied, with one of his sneering smiles. 'I have no
doubt that the amount of intellect absolutely necessary to the formation
of a British home, I shall be able to supply myself. I have no desire
for an intellectual wife. One is compelled to meet tiresome people, but
one does not live with them if one can avoid it.'

"'No,' he continued, reverting to his more