"Let us not say stupid, rather the unimaginative, the practical and the
plodding. The stubbornest person in the world is one with an idea."

"Do you honestly insist that you are mediocre?"

"No," thoughtfully. "I am one of those stubborn men with ideas. I
merely insist that I prefer to accept the tenets of mediocrity for my
own peace and the peace of others."

Elsa forgot those about her, forgot her intended humiliation of the man
at her side. He denied that he was an individual, but he was one, as
interesting a one as she had met in a very long time. She, too, had
made a blunder. Quick to form opinions, swift to judge, she stood
guilty with the common lot, who permit impressions instead of evidence
to sway them. Here was a man.

"We have gone far afield," she said, a tacit admission that she could
not refute his dissertations. This knowledge, however, was not irksome.

"Rather have we not come to the bars? Shall we let them down?"

"Proceed."

"In the civil and military life on this side of the world there are
many situations which we perforce must tolerate. But these, mind you,
are settled conditions. It is upon new ones which arise that we pass
judgment. I knew nothing about you, nothing whatever. So I judged you
according to the rules."

Elsa leaned upon her elbows, and she smiled a little as she noted that
the purple had gone from his nose and that it had resumed its
accustomed rubicundity.

"I go on. A woman who travels alone, who does not present letters of
introduction, who . . ."

"Who attends strictly to her own affairs. Go on."

"Who is young and beautiful."

"A sop! Thanks!"

Imperturbably he continued: "Who seeks the acquaintance of men who do
not belong, as you Americans say."

"Not men; one man," she corrected.

"A trifling difference. Well, it arouses a disagreeable word,
suspicion. For look, there have been examples. It isn't as if yours
were an isolated case. There have been examples, and these we apply to
such affairs as come under our notice."

"And it doesn't matter that you may be totally wrong?"

His prompt answer astonished her. "No, it does not matter in the
least. Simmered down, it may be explained in a word, appearances. And
I must say, to the normal mind . . ."

"The mediocre mind."

"To the normal and mediocre mind, appearances were against you.
Observe, please, that I did not know I was wrong, that you were a
remarkable young woman. My deduc