in disrepute to allude to so intimate and
secluded an organ as the heart, for no further removed than yesterday he
heard the deservedly popular sea-lieutenant in the act of declaring to
you, upon his knees, that you were utterly devoid of such a possession."

At this inoffensively-conveyed suggestion, the fire opposite had all the
appearance of suddenly reflecting itself into the maiden's face with a
most engaging concentration, while at the same time she stamped her foot
in ill-concealed rage.

"You've been listening at the door!" she cried impetuously, "and I shall
never forgive you."

"To no extent," I declared hastily (for although I had indeed been
listening at the door, it appeared, after the weight which she set
upon the incident, more honourable that I should deny it in order to
conciliate her mind). "It so chanced that for the moment this person
had forgotten whether the handle he was grasping was of the push-out or
turn-in variety, and in the involvement a few words of no particular or
enduring significance settled lightly upon his perception.

"In that case," she replied in high-souled liberality, while her eyes
scintillated towards me with a really all-overpowering radiance, "I will
forgive you."

"We have an old but very appropriate saying, 'To every man the voice of
one maiden carries further than the rolling of thunder,'" I remarked
in a significantly restrained tone; for, although conscious that the
circumstance was becoming more menace-laden than I had any previous
intention, I found myself to be incapable of extrication. "Florence--"

"Oh," she exclaimed quickly, raising her polished hand with an
undeniable gesture of reproof, "you must not call me by my christian
name, Mr. Ho."

"Yet," replied this person, with a confessedly stubborn inelegance, "you
call me by the name of Ho."

Her eyes became ox-like in an utter absence of almond outline. "Yes,"
she said gazing, "but that--that is not your christian name, is it?"

"In a position of speaking--this one being as a matter of fact a
discreditable follower of the sublime Confucius--it may be so regarded,"
I answered, "inasmuch as it is the milk-name of childhood."

"But you always put it last," she urged.

"Assuredly," I replied. "Being irrevocably born with the family name of
Kong, it is thought more reasonable that that should stand first. After
that, others are attached as the various contingencies demand it, as Ho
upon participating in t