“I made myself pretty clear to him yesterday,” said Arthur, thoughtfully; “but he is a poisonous sort of animal. He is given, I notice, to repeating himself. I hope he won’t do so, Jeannie, on this occasion; otherwise I shall have to repeat myself to him. Yet you say he cut you. That makes the question simpler.” “Why a gossip is a gossip is more than I can understand,” said Jeannie. “And where the pleasure of repeating as true what you made up yourself comes in is altogether beyond me.” “It is one of the pleasures of the imagination,” said Arthur, taking off his coat. “Go away and dress, Jeannie, and leave me to do the same. We shall be late.” “We always are,” said Jeannie, still lingering. “Isn’t it odd--” and she paused. Arthur began unlacing his boots. “Well?” “Isn’t it odd that Mrs. Collingwood should be Mr. Collingwood’s mother?” “It would be odder if she wasn’t,” remarked Arthur. Miss Fortescue had taken rather a fancy to Jack, and she showed it by treating him as she treated her nephew and niece--that is to say, she was rude to him. It was a bad sign for Miss Fortescue to be polite to any one; it implied she did not like him. But no one could have called her polite to Jack. She had asked him several questions on very different subjects during dinner, and to each he had returned an answer showing he knew something of the various questions. That was Miss Fortescue’s test. “Yes, you seem to know,” she said; “in fact, I think you know too much, Mr. Collingwood. The mind of a well-informed man is a horrible thing. It is like a curiosity-shop, full of odds and ends which are of no use to anybody.” Jeannie and Arthur burst out laughing. “Answer her back,” said Arthur; “she won’t mind.” Jack was sensible enough to know that Miss Fortescue could not be so rude, if her object was to be rude. “If I had not been able to tell you about pearl-oysters and Cayenne-pepper,” he said, “you would only have said, ‘The mind of an ignorant man is a horrible thing. It is like a new jerry-built villa unfurnished.’” “Just so,” said Miss Fortescue, “and the owner calls it a desirable mansion.” “But what is one to do?” said Jack. “Either one knows about a thing or one does not. It is a choice between being a jerry-built villa or a curiosity-shop.” “Some people,” said Miss Fortescue, “fill their villa with curiosities. It is possible to be well informed and completely uneducated.” “Go it, Jack,” said Arthur; “she’s beginning to hit wildly.” “Am I to apply that to myself?” asked Jack, turning to Miss Fortescue. “Oh, that is so like an Englishman,” said she. “Whenever you suggest an idea to an Englishman he cannot consider it in the abstract; he has to think whether it applies to him.” “Aunt Em never does that,” observed Jeannie; “she goes on the opposite tack. If you tell her she is being offensive, quite personally, she considers offensiveness in the abstract, and makes remarks about true courtesy.”