ly shown that he could be selfish; and
perhaps there is less difference between the meanings of the Scotch and
English words than most people suppose.

Daily and almost hourly intercourse with such a young girl as Clare was
a totally new experience to Brook Johnstone, and there were moments
when he hardly recognised himself for the man who had landed from the
yacht ten days earlier, and who had said good-bye to Lady Fan on the
platform behind the hotel.

Hitherto he had always known in a day or two whether he was inclined to
make love to a woman or not. An inclination to make love and the
satisfaction of it had been, so far, his nearest approach to being in
love at all. Nor, when he had felt the inclination, had he ever
hesitated. Like a certain great English statesman of similar
disposition, he had sometimes been repulsed, but he never remembered
having given offence. For he possessed that tactful intuition which
guides some men through life in their intercourse with women. He rarely
spoke the first word too soon, and if he were going to speak at all he
never spoke too late--which error is, of the two, by far the greater. He
was young, perhaps, to have had such experience; but in the social world
of to-day it is especially the fashion for men to be extremely young,
even to youthfulness, and lack of years is no longer the atrocious crime
which Pitt would neither attempt to palliate or deny. We have just
emerged from a period of wrinkles and paint, during which we were told
that age knew everything and youth nothing. The explosion into nonsense
of nine tenths of all we were taught at school and college has given
our children a terrible weapon against us; and women, who are all
practical in their own way, prefer the blundering whole-heartedness of
youth to the skilful tactics and over-effective effects of the
middle-aged love-actor. In this direction, at least, the breeze that
goes before the dawn of a new century is already blowing. Perhaps it is
a good sign--but a sign of some sort it certainly is.

Brook Johnstone felt that he was in an unfamiliar position, and he tried
to analyse his own feelings. He was perfectly honest about it, but he
had very little talent for analysis. On the other hand, he had a very
keen sense of what we roughly call honour. Clare was not Lady Fan, and
would probably never get into that category. Clare belonged amongst the
women whom he respected, and he respected them all, with all his heart