lly
dismissed from his mind Madame Mirliflore and the autumn soup.

"Yes?" he said, with a patient bow and a submissive smile. "You were
going to say--"

"I was going to say," I rejoined, "that your promise only pledges you
not to tell the secret which my husband is keeping from me. You have
given no promise not to answer me if I venture to ask you one or two
questions."

Major Fitz-David held up his hand warningly, and cast a sly look at me
out of his bright little gray eyes.

"Stop!" he said. "My sweet friend, stop there! I know where your
questions will lead me, and what the result will be if I once begin
to answer them. When your husband was here to-day he took occasion to
remind me that I was as weak as water in the hands of a pretty woman.
He is quite right. I _am_ as weak as water; I can refuse nothing to a
pretty woman. Dear and admirable lady, don't abuse your influence! don't
make an old soldier false to his word of honor!"

I tried to say something here in defense of my motives. The Major
clasped his hands entreatingly, and looked at me with a pleading
simplicity wonderful to see.

"Why press it?" he asked. "I offer no resistance. I am a lamb--why
sacrifice me? I acknowledge your power; I throw myself on your mercy.
All the misfortunes of my youth and my manhood have come to me through
women. I am not a bit better in my age--I am just as fond of the women
and just as ready to be misled by them as ever, with one foot in the
grave. Shocking, isn't it? But how true! Look at this mark!" He lifted
a curl of his beautiful brown wig, and showed me a terrible scar at the
side of his head. "That wound (supposed to be mortal at the time) was
made by a pistol bullet," he proceeded. "Not received in the service of
my country--oh dear, no! Received in the service of a much-injured lady,
at the hands of her scoundrel of a husband, in a duel abroad. Well, she
was worth it." He kissed his hand affectionately to the memory of the
dead or absent lady, and pointed to a water-color drawing of a pretty
country-house hanging on the opposite wall. "That fine estate," he
proceeded, "once belonged to me. It was sold years and years since. And
who had the money? The women--God bless them all!--the women. I don't
regret it. If I had another estate, I have no doubt it would go the same
way. Your adorable sex has made its pretty playthings of my life, my
time, and my money--and welcome! The one thing I have kept to myself
is my h