content with the event of his
folly.

"A girl always thinks she despises a man when she can do as she pleases
with him," replied she. "As Mr. Tetlow said, I was a fool."

"_I_ was the fool," said he. "Where did that man of mine lay the
handkerchief?"

"I, too," cried she, eagerly. "You were foolish to bother about a little
silly like me. But, oh, what a _fool_ I was not to realize----"

"You're not trying to tell me you're in love with me?" said he sharply.

"Oh, no--no, indeed," she protested in haste, alarmed by his
overwhelming manner. "I'm not trying to deceive you in any way."

"Never do," said he. "It's the one thing I can't stand."

"But I thought--it seemed to me--" she persisted, "that perhaps if we
tried to--to care for each other, we'd maybe get to--to caring--more or
less. Don't you think so?"

"Perhaps," was his careless reply. He added, "But I, for one, am well
content with things as they are. I confess I don't look back with any
satisfaction on those months when I was making an ass of myself about
you. I was ruining my career. Now I'm happy, and everything is going
fine in my business. No experiments, if you please." He shook his head,
looking at her with smiling raillery. "It might turn out that I'd care
for you in the same crazy way again, and that you didn't like it. Again
you might get excited about me and I'd remain calm about you. That would
give me a handsome revenge, but I'm not looking for revenge."

He finished his toilet, she standing quiet and thoughtful in an attitude
of unconscious grace.

"No, my dear," resumed he, as he prepared to descend for dinner, "let's
have a peaceful, cheerful married life, with no crazy excitements.
Let's hang on to what we've got, and take no unnecessary risks." He
patted her on the shoulder. "Isn't that sensible?"

She looked at him with serious, appealing eyes. "You are _sure_ you aren't
unhappy?"

It was amusing to him--though he concealed it--to see how tenaciously
her feminine egotism held to the idea that she was the important person.
And, when women of experience thus deluded themselves, it was not at all
strange that this girl should be unable to grasp the essential truth as
to the relations of men and women--that, while a woman who makes her sex
her profession must give to a man, to some man, a dominant place in her
life, a man need give a woman--at least, any one woman--little or no
place. But he would not wantonly wound her harmless vanit