ed, sharply. "They could ALL die, _I_
wouldn't notice!"

Johnnie Watson was profoundly impressed. "Why, _I_ didn't know you felt
that way about 'em, Silly Bill. I always thought you were kind of--"

"Well, I do feel that way about 'em!" said William Sylvanus Baxter, and,
outraged by the repetition of the offensive nickname, he began to move
away. "You can tell 'em so for me, if you want to!" he added over his
shoulder. And he walked haughtily up the street, leaving Mr. Watson to
ponder upon this case of misogyny, never until that moment suspected.

It was beyond the power of his mind to grasp the fact that William
Sylvanus Baxter's cruel words about "girls" had been uttered because
William was annoyed at being called "Silly Bill" in a public place, and
had not known how to object otherwise than by showing contempt for any
topic of conversation proposed by the offender. This latter, being of
a disposition to accept statements as facts, was warmly interested,
instead of being hurt, and decided that here was something worth talking
about, especially with representatives of the class so sweepingly
excluded from the sympathies of Silly Bill.

William, meanwhile, made his way toward the "residence section" of the
town, and presently--with the passage of time found himself eased of his
annoyance. He walked in his own manner, using his shoulders to emphasize
an effect of carelessness which he wished to produce upon observers. For
his consciousness of observers was abnormal, since he had it whether any
one was looking at him or not, and it reached a crucial stage whenever
he perceived persons of his own age, but of opposite sex, approaching.

A person of this description was encountered upon the sidewalk within a
hundred yards of his own home, and William Sylvanus Baxter saw her while
yet she was afar off. The quiet and shady thoroughfare was empty of all
human life, at the time, save for those two; and she was upon the same
side of the street that he was; thus it became inevitable that they
should meet, face to face, for the first time in their lives. He
had perceived, even in the distance, that she was unknown to him, a
stranger, because he knew all the girls in this part of the town who
dressed as famously in the mode as that! And then, as the distance
between them lessened, he saw that she was ravishingly pretty; far, far
prettier, indeed, than any girl he knew. At least it seemed so, for it
is, unfortunately, much easie