"From a woman's standpoint," said Mr. Brassfield, "it probably seems so. But you and I can surely find matters of more mutual interest to talk about, can't we?" "Perhaps," said the girl, "but I don't think of anything just now. Do you?" "Well, for one thing," said he, "I have just found out what makes your eyes so beautiful." "Wouldn't it be just as well to cease discovering things of that kind? It's so short a time to the fifth of April, you know." "I've made all my money," said Brassfield, "by never quitting discovering. I like it. And this last find especially." "I think there are other lines of investigation," said she, "which demand your time and attention." "Oh, pshaw!" said he. "Don't be so prudish. You know that your eyes are beautiful, and you are not really offended when I tell you so. Such eyes are the books in which I like to read--I can understand them better than Browning, or the old Persian soak. It's not unpleasant to get a volume you understand--at times." "Why, Mr. Amidon--Brassfield, I mean--aren't you ashamed of yourself!" "A little," said he; "not much, though. And who is this 'Mr. Amman,' or whatever the name is, that is so much in your mind that you call me by his name when you speak without thinking?" "A dear friend of mine!" "Well, now, if you should happen to see something agreeable in me, and should let me know about it, I shouldn't throw your Mr. Amden, or Amidon, at your head. Why not forget about the rest of the world for a while? We can be in only one place at a time, and so, really, our whole world just now has only us two. You oughtn't to repel the only person in the wide, wide world; you won't, will you?" "Don't be foolish!" "Don't be wasteful! This may be the only world of this kind we shall be allowed to have. Come over and sit by me and be nice to me, won't you?" "I certainly shall do nothing of the kind!" "No? Ah, how wasteful of opportunity! Well, then, I shall have to come to you!" Oh, the depravity of society in these days, and oh, the unpleasantness of setting these things down! But, on the other hand, what a comfort it is to think that men as base as Brassfield are so rare that you and I, my boy, have probably never met a specimen. And if you ever find, my love, that any person in whom you have any tender interest has ever behaved in a way similar to the conduct of Brassfield, you should give the prisoner the benefit of every doubt, and accord full weight to the precedent contained in this history, and to the fact that it was Brassfield and not Amidon who did this. A man can not be blamed for lapsing into the Brassfield state. A man should be acquitted--eh? Defending some one? Why, certainly not! And how long this paragraph is growing! Yes, I feel sure Clara Blatherwick repulsed these advances as she should, and that Brassfield, being fully under "control," did not--why, of course not, as you say!