As he spoke he made so rueful a face that Miss Stirling laughed outright, but checked herself, saying with compunction: 'It is not nice of me to laugh at my hostess! And she really has been very kind to me.' 'O yes, she is good-natured enough! Still--in this instance allow me to say--the obligation is more on her side than yours.' 'Why? I don't see that.' 'Have you not found out then, yet, that our friend has a weakness for collecting celebrities at her house?' 'But then I am not one; so that does not apply. I suppose,' she added, looking up at him with an arch expression, he was quite ashamed of finding most winning, 'that accounts for _you_ being here!' 'Do you really mean you do not consider yourself a celebrity?' he asked rather sarcastically. 'I don't say what I don't mean,' she answered coldly. 'You think, I suppose, whenever a woman "speaks in public" it is to shew herself off?' 'So you bear me a grudge for the unlucky speech you heard last night?' Miss Stirling coloured. 'It is small of me to be vexed, I know,' she said, after a moment's pause, in her frank direct way; 'but we get a good many snubs, you must know, and we--or I, rather--are stupid enough to feel somewhat sensitive.' 'Well, please to forgive me. I spoke principally out of contradiction to Mrs De Lacy.' 'But you _did_ disapprove. I saw it in your face. I believe most of your countrymen share your prejudice.' '_My_ countrymen? What! are you not my countrywoman?' 'I was born and bred in America. My mother is an Englishwoman; and we came over seven years ago, when my father died. So you did not detect the Yankee twang, then?' Earle was taken aback. This young lady seemed determined to unsettle his old prejudices. If there were one thing he disliked more even than a strong-minded woman, it was an American. She was both, and yet he found it hard to dislike Silvia Stirling. 'An American!' he said. 'Yes;' and she smiled at his expression. 'Isn't that dreadful? Almost worse than public speaking! I see I am lost in your good opinion.' 'Miss Stirling,' Earle said honestly, 'I won't conceal from you, even if I could, that I have a prejudice against women taking part in public affairs; but I am quite willing to have it dispelled. I must tell you too, that though I came last night to scoff, I ended by admiring.' 'You are not flattering me?' 'Indeed I am not. You are the last woman I should dare to flatter!' The beautiful clear eyes fell under his earnest gaze, and the colour rose into her face, which Earle thought at that moment almost a perfect one. After a pause she said: 'Now, _I_ think that both men and women would get on better if they helped each other more on common ground. The sense of superiority on your side produces aggressiveness and self-assertion on ours. Why not leave off quarrelling about who is the best, and agree to be different and yet friends?' 'People say friendship is incompatible between men and women.'