y do
you----"

"Why do I go on setting them forth at such great length?" Amherst smiled
again. "To convince you--that's my only ambition."

She stared at him, shaking her head back to toss a loose lock from her
puzzled eyes. A tear still shone on her lashes, but with the motion it
fell and trembled down her cheek.

"To convince _me_? But you know I am so ignorant of such things."

"Most women are."

"I never pretended to understand anything about--economics, or whatever
you call it."

"No."

"Then how----"

He turned and looked at her gently. "I thought you might have begun to
understand something about _me_."

"About you?" The colour flowered softly under her clear skin.

"About what my ideas on such subjects were likely to be worth--judging
from what you know of me in other respects." He paused and glanced away
from her. "Well," he concluded deliberately, "I suppose I've had my
answer tonight."

"Oh, John----!"

He rose and wandered across the room, pausing a moment to finger
absently the trinkets on the dressing-table. The act recalled with a
curious vividness certain dulled sensations of their first days
together, when to handle and examine these frail little accessories of
her toilet had been part of the wonder and amusement of his new
existence. He could still hear her laugh as she leaned over him,
watching his mystified look in the glass, till their reflected eyes met
there and drew down her lips to his. He laid down the fragrant
powder-puff he had been turning slowly between his fingers, and moved
back toward the bed. In the interval he had reached a decision.

"Well--isn't it natural that I should think so?" he began again, as he
stood beside her. "When we married I never expected you to care or know
much about economics. It isn't a quality a man usually chooses his wife
for. But I had a fancy--perhaps it shows my conceit--that when we had
lived together a year or two, and you'd found out what kind of a fellow
I was in other ways--ways any woman can judge of--I had a fancy that you
might take my opinions on faith when it came to my own special
business--the thing I'm generally supposed to know about."

He knew that he was touching a sensitive chord, for Bessy had to the
full her sex's pride of possessorship. He was human and faulty till
others criticized him--then he became a god. But in this case a
conflicting influence restrained her from complete response to his
appeal.

"I _do_ feel su