"And how about an honorable woman?" interrogated Mell. "She can lie, and lie, and still be honorable," he informed her with fierce irony. "Then you expect me to----" "I do! I confidently expect you to do it, and at once. Break with him, and have a little patience with me, until Clara gets the Honorable Archibald taut on the line, and awakens to the fact that she loves me still--but only as a brother! It is coming--it is sure to come, and before long." "In the meantime," remarked Mell, with a peculiar expression, "what's the use of hurting Rube's feelings?" "Gods and angels, listen!" exclaimed her companion, in overwhelming indignation. "The question then has narrowed down to the getting of a husband without regard to any body's feelings--save Rube. His are not to be hurt until you can hurt them with impunity! You are bound to hold on to _him_ until you secure _me_, beyond a peradventure! That is your little game, Mell, is it? Out upon you! Oh, unfortunate man that I am, to have fallen into the hands of a woman who is particular as to the fit of her ball dress, but has no preference when it comes to a husband; who has the aspect of a goddess, but the easy principles of a Delilah; who is, in fact, not a genuine woman at all, with a heart and a soul in her, but a man-eating monster, seeking prey--a shark in woman's clothing, ready to take into the matrimonial clutch, and swallow at a single gulp, me, if you can get me; if not me, Rube; if not Rube, any other eligible creature in man's guise, whether descended from a molecule in the coral, or a tadpole in the spawn: whether a swine of Epicurus, or an ape just from Barbary! Shame upon you, woman! Shame! Shame!" Restive under these severe strictures, Mell had made several ineffectual attempts to put a stop to them, but her appealing gestures implored in vain. Finding he would not desist, she bit her lips in great agitation, and crimsoned violently. "You are the most impertinent man in existence!" she informed him petulantly, when he had done. "That's right, Mell," he answered. "Turn red--turn red to the tips of your eyelashes! It is the most hopeful sign I have yet seen. Mellville, look at me." She raised to him wonderingly her wondrously beautiful eyes.