“Then I shall say am, to be on the safe side; I know where The Larches am. You are living at The Larches.” “No, I――I am merely staying there.” “For the summer; exactly. That’s what I meant. When you are at home you live in Boston. I won’t tell you how I discovered that, but it was quite fairly.” “Do I――are you sure I am a Bostonian?” “Hm! Now that you mention it――I am not. Perhaps your family moved to Boston from somewhere else?” “Yes?” “From――let me see! Pennsylvania? But no, you don’t talk like a Pennsylvanian. Maryland? No again. Where, please?” “But I haven’t acknowledged the correctness of any of your premises yet,” she objected. “But you don’t dare tell me I’m wrong,” he challenged. “At least, I am not going to tell you so,” she answered. “That is as good as an admission!” “Very well,” she replied serenely. “And now that you know so much about me――that is all, by the way?” “So far,” he replied. “Then don’t you think I ought to know something about you?” “I am flattered that you care to.” He laid a hand over his heart and bowed profoundly. [Illustration] “My curiosity is of the idlest imaginable,” she responded cruelly. “I regret that bow,” he said. “However, I shall tell you anyhow. I am like the prestidigitateur in that I have nothing to conceal. And,” he added ruefully, “mighty little to reveal. My name is Parmley, surnamed Ethan. I am holding nothing back there, for I have no middle name. It has been a custom in our family since the days of the disreputable old Norman robber from whom we are descended to exclude middle names. I was born in this same Commonwealth of Massachusetts of well-to-do and honest parents, both of whom have been dead for some years. I was an only child. Pray, Miss Devereux, consider――――” “If you don’t mind,” she interrupted, “I’d rather you didn’t call me that. I haven’t owned to it, you know.” “Pardon me! I was about to ask you, Miss Clytie, to consider that fact when weighing my faults. As a child I was intensely interesting; I have gathered as much from my mother. I passed successfully through the measles, mumps, scarlet fever and whooping-cough. I also had the postage-stamp, bird-egg and autograph manias. Later I wriggled my way through a preparatory school――a sort of hot-house for tender young snobs――and later managed, by the skin of my teeth and a condition or two, to enter college. As it has been the custom for the Parmleys to go to Harvard, I went there too. I am boring you frightfully?” “No.” “I succeeded in completing a four-year course in five. Some chaps do it in three, but I didn’t want to appear arrogant. I took it leisurely and finished in five. Then, as there had never been a lawyer in the family, I decided to study law. I entered the Harvard Law School and graduated a few weeks ago. I am now spending a hard-earned vacation. In September I am to enter a law firm in Providence as a sort of dignified office-boy.