ceed?"

"No. That's too big a jump, unless my young man's expressions on the
tariff command a wide sale amongst curio-hunters."

"Then he is quite a fool about political matters?"

"Far from it; he is highly ingenious. His editorials are often the
subtlest cups of flattery I ever sipped, many of them showing assiduous
study of old files to master the method and notions of his eagle-eyed
predecessor. But the tariff seems to have got him. He is a very
masculine person, except for this one feminine quality, for, if I may
say it without ungallantry, there is a legend that no woman has ever
understood the tariff. Young Fisbee must be an extremely travelled
person, because the custom-house people have made an impression upon him
which no few encounters with them could explain, and he conceives the
tariff to be a law which discommodes a lady who has been purchasing
gloves in Paris. He thinks smuggling the great evil of the present
tariff system; it is such a temptation, so insidious a break-down of
moral fibre. His views must edify Carlow."

She gave a quick, stifled cry. "Oh! there isn't a word of truth in what
you say! Not a word! I did not think you could be so cruel!"

He bent forward, peering at her in astonishment.

"Cruel!"

"You know it is a hateful distortion--an exaggeration!" she exclaimed
passionately. "No man living could have so little sense as you say
he has. The tariff is perfectly plain to any child. When you were in
Plattville you weren't like this--I didn't know you were unkind!"

"I--I don't understand, please----"

"Miss Hinsdale has been talking--raving--to me about you! You may not
know it--though I suppose you do--but you made a conquest last night.
It seems a little hard on the poor young man who is at work for you in
Plattville, doing his best for you, plodding on through the hot days,
and doing all he knows how, while you sit listening to music in the
evenings with Clara Hinsdale, and make a mock of his work and his trying
to please you----"

"But I didn't mention him to Miss Hinsdale. In fact, I didn't mention
_anything_ to Miss Hinsdale. What have I done? The young man is making
his living by his work--and my living, too, for that matter. It only
seems to me that his tariff editorials are rather humorous."

She laughed suddenly--ringingly. "Of course they are! How should I know?
Immensely humorous! And the good creature knows nothing beyond smuggling
and the custom-house and chalk mark