ells me," said Miss Callis, "that you are to give him his answer at
Cologne."

"Does he, indeed?" said I. We were floating down the Rhine in the
society of our friends, two hundred and fifty other floaters, and a
string band. We had left the battlements of Bingen, and the Mouse Tower
was in sight. As we had already acquired the legend, and were sitting
behind the smoke stack, there was no reason why we should not discuss
Mr. Mafferton.

"I suppose he does not, by any chance, mention an alternative lady," I
said carelessly.

"I don't know," said Miss Callis, "that I should be disposed to listen
to him if he did. He would have to put it in some other light."

"Why should you object?" I asked. "Isabel is quite a proper person to
marry him. Much more so, I often think, than I."

"Oh!" said Miss Callis without meaning to. "I think he has outgrown that
taste. In fact, he told me so."

"He is for ever seeking a fresh bosom for a confidence!" I cried.

Miss Callis looked at me with more interest than she would have wished
to express.

"What do you really think of him?" she asked. "I sometimes feel as if I
had known you for years," and she took my hand.

I gave hers a gentle pressure, and edged a little nearer. "He has good
shoulders," I remarked critically.

"You would hardly marry him for his _shoulders_!"

"It doesn't seem quite enough," I admitted, "but then--his information
is always so accurate."

"If you think you would like living with an encyclopedia." Miss Callis
had begun to look embarrassed by my hand, but I still permitted it to
nestle confidingly in hers.

"He pronounces all his g's," I said, "and--did you ever see him in a
silk hat?"

"I don't think you are really attached to him, dear." (The "dear" was a
really creditable sacrifice to the situation.)

"I sometimes think," I murmured, "that one never knows one's own heart
until some sudden circumstance puts it to the test. Now if I had a
rival--in you, for instance--and I suddenly saw myself losing--but, of
course, that is impossible so far as you are concerned. Because of the
Count."

"The Count isn't in it," said Miss Callis firmly. "At least at present."

"But," I protested, "somebody must provide for him! I was so happy in
the thought that you had undertaken it."

Miss Callis gave me back my hand. She looked as if she would have liked
to throw it overboard.

"As you say," she said, "it is a little difficult to make up one's mind.
Don'