; but the saving grace of humour warned her of
her peril, and she ate a peanut.

"To save my face," she explained. "But I didn't suppose you were capable
of it."

"As a matter of fact," he said, tranquilly, "a man can do anything in
this world if he only does it thoroughly and appears to enjoy himself.
I've seen the Prince Regent of Boznovia sitting at the window of the
Crown Regiment barracks arrayed in his shirt-sleeves and absorbing beer
and pretzels."

"But _he_ was the Prince Regent!"

"And I'm Tennant."

"According to that philosophy you are at liberty to eat fish with your
knife."

"But I don't want to."

"But suppose you did want to?"

"That is neither philosophy nor logic," he insisted; "that is
speculation. May I offer you a stick of old-fashioned circus candy
flavored with wintergreen?"

"You may," she said, accepting it. "If there is any lower depth I may
attain, I'm sure you will suggest it."

"I'll try," he said. Their eyes met for an instant; then hers were
lowered.

Squirrels came in troops; she fed the little, fat scamps to repletion,
and the green lawn was dotted with squirrels all busily burying peanuts
for future consumption. A brilliant peacock appeared, picking his way
towards them, followed by a covey of imbecile peafowl. She fed them
until their crops protruded.

The sun glittered on the upper windows of the clubs and hotels along
Fifth Avenue; the west turned gold, then pink. Clouds of tiny moths came
hovering among the wistaria blossoms; and high in the sky the metallic
note of a nighthawk rang, repeating in querulous cadence the cries of
water-fowl on the lake, where mallard and widgeon were restlessly
preparing for an evening flight.

"You know," she said, gravely, "a woman who over-steps convention always
suffers; a man, never. I have done something I never expected to
do--never supposed was in me to do. And now that I have gone so far, it
is perhaps better for me to go farther." She looked at him steadily.
"Your studio is a perfect sounding-board. You have an astonishingly
frank habit of talking to yourself; and every word is perfectly audible
to me when my window is raised. When you chose to apostrophize me as a
'white-faced, dark-eyed little thing,' and when you remarked to
yourself that there were 'thousands like me in New York,' I was
perfectly indignant."

He sat staring at her, utterly incapable of uttering a sound.

"It costs a great deal for me to say this," sh