o you tell me she had that heavy load on her heart all the time
she was talking and laughing there?"

L'Estrange nodded.

"It's only women bear up that way. Take my word for it, if it had been
one of us he 'd not have come down to dinner, he 'd not have had pluck
to show himself. There's where they beat us, sir,--that's real courage."

"You are not taking your wine," said L'Estrange, seeing him pass the
bottle.

"No; I want my head clear this evening, I want to be cool and
collected. I'll not drink any more. Tell me about yourself a little; how
do you get on here? do you like the place? do you like the people?"

"The place is charming; we like it better every day we live in it."

"And the people--the English, I mean; what of them?"

"They mean kindly enough, indeed they are often very kind; but they do
not live in much harmony, and they only agree in one thing--"

"I know what that is. They all join to worry the parson--of course they
do. Did you ever live in a lodging-house, L'Estrange? If you did,
you must have seen how the whole population coalesced to torment
the maid-of-all-work. She belonged to them all, collectively and
individually. And so it is with you. You are the maid-of-all-work. You
have to make Brown's bed, and black Robinson's boots--spiritually, I
mean--and none recognizes the claim of his neighbor, each believes you
belong to himself. That's the voluntary system, as they call it; and a
quicker way to drive a man mad was never invented."

"Perhaps you take an extreme view of it--" began L'Estrange.

"No, I don't," interrupted the other. "I 've only to look at your face,
and instead of the fresh cheeks and the clear bright eyes I remember
when I saw you first, I see you now anxious and pale and nervous.
Where's the pluck that enabled you to ride at a five-foot wall? Do you
think you could do it now?"

"Very likely not. Very likely it is all the better I should not."

"You'll not get me to believe that. No man's nature was ever bettered
for being bullied."

L'Estrange laughed heartily, not in the least degree angered by the
other's somewhat coarse candor.

"It's a queer world altogether; but maybe if each of us was doing the
exact thing he was fit for, life would n't be half as good a thing as it
is. The whole thing would be like a piece of machinery, and instead of
the hitches and makeshifts that we see now, and that bring out men's
qualities and test their natures, we'd have nothing but