"I admit that it is almost as bad as sleeping." "I see that you have a homily prepared on improving the time, so I shall escape at once." On the stairs she met Miss Burton, who was descending with a breezy swiftness as if she were making a charge on the general gloom and sullenness of the day. "Good-morning, Miss Mayhew," she said; "I'm glad to see you looking so well after the severe shaking up you had yesterday. You would almost tempt one to believe that rough usage is sometimes good for us." "I have no such belief, I assure you. Yesterday was bad enough, but to-day promises to be worse. I was going to make up a boating party, but what can one do when the water is overhead instead of under the keel?" "Scores of things," was the cheery reply. "I'm going to have a good time." "I'm going to sleep," said Ida, passing on. "Miss Burton," said Stanton, joining her at the foot of the stairs, "I perceive, even from your manner of descending to our lower world, that you are destined to vanquish the dullness of this rainy day. Don't you wish an ally?" "Would you be an ally, Mr. Stanton, if you saw I was destined to be vanquished?" "Of course I would." "Look in the parlor then. There are at least a dozen ladies already vanquished. They are oppressed by the foul-fiend, 'ennui.' Transfer your chivalric offer to them and deliver them." "Stanton," laughed Van Berg, "you are in honor bound to devote yourself to those oppressed ladies." "The prospect is so dark and depressing that I shall at least cheer myself first with the light of a cigar." "And so your chivalry will end in smoke," she said. "Yes, Miss Burton, the smoke of battle, where you are concerned." "I fear your wit is readier than your sword. The soldier that boasts how he would overwhelm some other foe than the one before him loses credit to the degree that he protests." "You are more exacting, Miss Burton, than the lady who threw her glove down among the lions. What chance would Hercules himself have of lifting those twelve heavy females out of the dumps?" "It's not what we do, but what we attempt, that shows our spirit." "Then I shall expect to see you attempt great things." "I'm only a woman." "And I'm only a man." "Only a man! what greater vantage-ground could one have than to be a man?" "The advantage is not so uncommon that one need be unduly elated," state Stanton with a shrug. "I forget how many hundred millions of us there are. But I'm curious to see how you will set about rendering the hues of this leaden day prismatic." "Only by being the innocent cause of your highly colored language, I imagine." "Oh, dear," exclaimed a little boy petulantly, as he strolled through the hall and looked out at the steady downfall of rain. "Oh dear! Why can't it stop raining?" "There's the philosophy of our time for you in a nutshell," said Van Berg. "When a human atom wants anything, what business has the universe to stand in its way?"