to hear me; but THAT is the way we ask a
young man his intentions nowadays.)

He stopped short and hesitated. "Oh, quite casual," he replied, almost
stammering. "Most casual, I assure you.... I have never ventured to do
myself the honour of supposing that... that Miss Tepping could possibly
care for me."

"There is such a thing as being TOO modest and unassuming," I answered.
"It sometimes leads to unintentional cruelty."

"No, do you think so?" he cried, his face falling all at once. "I should
blame myself bitterly if that were so. Dr. Cumberledge, you are her
cousin. DO you gather that I have acted in such a way as to--to lead
Miss Tepping to suppose I felt any affection for her?"

I laughed in his face. "My dear boy," I answered, laying one hand on
his shoulder, "may I say the plain truth? A blind bat could see you are
madly in love with her."

His mouth twitched. "That's very serious!" he answered, gravely; "very
serious."

"It is," I responded, with my best paternal manner, gazing blankly in
front of me.

He stopped short again. "Look here," he said, facing me. "Are you busy?
No? Then come back with me to my rooms; and--I'll make a clean breast of
it."

"By all means," I assented. "When one is young--and foolish--I have
often noticed, as a medical man, that a drachm of clean breast is a
magnificent prescription."

He walked back by my side, talking all the way of Daphne's many adorable
qualities. He exhausted the dictionary for laudatory adjectives. By the
time I reached his door it was not HIS fault if I had not learned that
the angelic hierarchy were not in the running with my pretty cousin for
graces and virtues. I felt that Faith, Hope, and Charity ought to resign
at once in favour of Miss Daphne Tepping, promoted.

He took me into his comfortably furnished rooms--the luxurious rooms
of a rich young bachelor, with taste as well as money--and offered me a
partaga. Now, I have long observed, in the course of my practice, that
a choice cigar assists a man in taking a philosophic outlook on the
question under discussion; so I accepted the partaga. He sat
down opposite me and pointed to a photograph in the centre of his
mantlepiece. "I am engaged to that lady," he put in, shortly.

"So I anticipated," I answered, lighting up.

He started and looked surprised. "Why, what made you guess it?" he
inquired.

I smiled the calm smile of superior age--I was some eight years or so
his senior. "My dear fell