al inconsistency commend me to yourself!"

"I scarcely require it for my personal wants, but money is sorely
needed to carry out my wishes for this village. As landlord, I feel
myself responsible for many things that cannot be set right without it."

"But--but--mother always told me that Major Lessing was rich; and you
are his heir."

"I can only assure you that I am poor," said Paul, simply. "Now, I
hope, I have proved satisfactorily to you that circumstances, tastes,
and opinions differing so greatly between us, make anything like
friendship impossible. Whenever we come across each other we quarrel;
we can't help it."

May flushed to the roots of her hair. "Thank you," she said haughtily.
"It is kind of you to put it so clearly. I simply tried to put things
on a kinder footing, as we are your tenants and your neighbours, but I
see I have made a mistake. It surprises me to find you so painfully
prejudiced. Good-bye. I've kept you too long from your one friend."

She opened the gate and passed on her way with never a look behind; but
Paul followed with long, rapid strides.

"Miss Webster! stay one moment, please! I believe I've been behaving
like a perfect brute," he said hurriedly. "At first I thought you were
simply playing a game with me; but, without knowing it, we drifted into
earnestness. If any word of mine has seriously vexed you, I apologize
and retract."

"You could even believe it possible that I might feel a ray of interest
in some of the big subjects which absorb your life," said May.

"To have made a man acknowledge himself a prig once in an afternoon is
enough," retorted Paul. "I will not do it again. You know the worst
of me: that I have an uncertain temper, which betrays me occasionally
into blurting out unpleasant truths: that I have absolutely no small
talk. I shall be at best but a rough-and-ready friend; but if in your
kindness you still care to cultivate Sally and me, we will gratefully
accept the cultivation, and be the better for it. There's my hand on
it," and Paul stretched out his hand. And May gave him her small
gloved one for an instant with a very sunny smile.

"And you will come to dinner soon and not feel you need talk down to
us."

"When all the smart people have gone," Paul said smiling.

"Smart people are your pet aversion, apparently. Is that why you would
not come lately?"

"Yes; if you wish to hear the truth," Paul admitted as he turned back
to the re