ose who maintain that a man can do everything better than
a woman can do it. This is certainly true of nagging. When a man nags,
he shows his thoroughness, his continuity, and that love of sport
which is the special pride and attribute of his sex. When a man nags,
he puts his whole heart into the effort; a woman only nags, as a rule,
because the heart has been taken out of her. The nagging woman is an
over-tasked creature with jarred nerves, whose plaint is an expression
of pain, a cry for help; in any interval of ease which lasts long
enough to relax the tension, she feels remorse, and becomes amiably
anxious to atone. With the male nag it is different. He is usually
sleek and smiling, a joyous creature, fond of good living, whose
self-satisfaction bubbles over in artistic attempts to make everybody
else uncomfortable. This was the kind of creature Uncle James Patten
was. He loved to shock and jar and startle people, especially if they
were powerless to retaliate. Of two ways of saying a thing he
invariably chose the more disagreeable; and when he had bad news to
break, it added to his interest in it if the victim felt it deeply and
showed signs of suffering.

One morning at breakfast it might have been suspected that there was
something unpleasant toward. Uncle James had read prayers with such
happy unction, and showed such pleased importance as he took his seat.

"Aunt Victoria," he lisped, "I have just observed in yesterday's paper
that money matters are in a bad way. There has been a crisis in the
city, and your investments have sunk so low that your income will be
practically nil."

"What!" said Aunt Victoria incredulously, "the shares you advised me
to buy?"

"Those are the ones, yes," he answered.

"But, then--I fear you have lost money too," she exclaimed.

"Oh no, thank you," he assured her, in a tone which implied reproach,
"_I_ never speculate."

"James Patten," said Aunt Victoria quietly, "am I to understand that
you advised me to buy stock in which you yourself did not venture to
speculate?"

"Well--er--you see," he answered with composure, "as speculation was
against my principles, I could not take advantage of the opportunity
myself, but that seemed to me no reason why you should not try to
double your income. It may have been an error of judgment on my part;
I am far from infallible--far from infallible. But I think I may claim
to be disinterested. I did not hope to benefit myself----"

"Dur