he; "not much, though. And who is this 'Mr. Amman,'
or whatever the name is, that is so much in your mind that you call me
by his name when you speak without thinking?"

"A dear friend of mine!"

"Well, now, if you should happen to see something agreeable in me, and
should let me know about it, I shouldn't throw your Mr. Amden, or
Amidon, at your head. Why not forget about the rest of the world for a
while? We can be in only one place at a time, and so, really, our
whole world just now has only us two. You oughtn't to repel the only
person in the wide, wide world; you won't, will you?"

"Don't be foolish!"

"Don't be wasteful! This may be the only world of this kind we shall
be allowed to have. Come over and sit by me and be nice to me, won't
you?"

"I certainly shall do nothing of the kind!"

"No? Ah, how wasteful of opportunity! Well, then, I shall have to
come to you!"

Oh, the depravity of society in these days, and oh, the unpleasantness
of setting these things down! But, on the other hand, what a comfort
it is to think that men as base as Brassfield are so rare that you and
I, my boy, have probably never met a specimen. And if you ever find,
my love, that any person in whom you have any tender interest has ever
behaved in a way similar to the conduct of Brassfield, you should give
the prisoner the benefit of every doubt, and accord full weight to the
precedent contained in this history, and to the fact that it was
Brassfield and not Amidon who did this. A man can not be blamed for
lapsing into the Brassfield state. A man should be acquitted--eh?
Defending some one? Why, certainly not! And how long this paragraph
is growing! Yes, I feel sure Clara Blatherwick repulsed these advances
as she should, and that Brassfield, being fully under "control," did
not--why, of course not, as you say!

But I am going no further with the matter now; except to say that in
something like an hour Mr. Amidon departed much perturbed by the
prospect of the nearness of his happiness, fully convinced of his
unworthiness, and quakingly uncertain as to many things, but most of
all, just then, as to his clothes!

"This man Brassfield," said he to himself, "seems to have been a good
deal of a dude, and Elizabeth--the darling!--will expect me to be fully
up to vogue in this regard--as she will be in all things. And I don't
believe a thing has been done about clothes."

Meantime, Madame le Claire walked up and down