s told me. It does seem such a pity, such a great pity. I saw
her once and I could see she was not merely good to look at but really
good, good through and through."

"May I smoke?" Lennox asked.

Had he wished he could have stood on his head. Cassy nodded at him. He
got out a cigar.

"Miss Austen is all you say. She is a saint. A man doesn't want a saint.
A man wants flesh and blood."

Cassy took another bitter-sweet. "She's that. Any one would know it."

Lennox bit at the cigar. "Too good for me, though. So good that she
threw me over."

Cassy put a finger through it. "She did not understand. Any girl might
have done the same."

Sombrely Lennox considered her. "Would you? You say she did not
understand. I know well enough she did not. But if you cared for a man,
would you throw him over because of a charge which you could not be sure
was true and without giving him a chance to disprove it? Would you?"

He could stand on his head, yes, but it was unfair to grill her. She
flushed.

"I don't see what that has to do with it."

"How, you don't see?"

"Isn't it obvious? Miss Austen and I move in different worlds. On any
subject our views might differ and I don't mean at all but that hers
would be superior."

"There can be but one view of what's square."

"I am sure she meant to be."

Unconcernedly, Lennox smiled. The smile lit his face. From sombre it
became radiant.

"That's all very well. The point is what you would think. Would you
think it square to throw a man over as she threw me?"

Cassy showed her teeth. "If I didn't care for him, certainly I would."

"But if you did?"

That was too much. Cassy exclaimed at it. "If! If! How can I tell? I
don't know. I lack experience."

"But not heart."

He was right about that, worse luck. How it beat, too! It would kill her
though to have him suspect it.

"I do wish you would tell me," he added.

Cassy, casting about, felt like an imbecile and said brilliantly:
"Haven't you a match? Shall I fetch one?"

Lennox extracted a little case. "Thanks. It's an answer I'd like."

It was enough to drive you mad and again casting about, but not getting
it, she hedged.

"It will have to be in the abstract, then."

"Very good. Let's have it in the abstract."

Yet even in the abstract! However, with an uplift of the chin that gave
her, she felt, an air of discussing a matter in which she had no concern
at all, she plunged.

"One never knows, don't you know,