"No doubt; but even so it retains some of its fragrance. In its worst state I should be sorry to exchange it for"--it was now the Captain's turn to throw all his power of expression into one short word--"_snap_!" Cornelia's laugh held a curious mingling of irritation and pleasure. It was poor fun having a quarrel all to herself, and it whetted her appetite to find a combatant who was capable of "hitting back." She sat up very straight in her seat, tossing her head backward in quick, assertive little jerks, and clasping her bare hands on her lap. Guest glanced at her curiously from his point of vantage in the rear. She was like no other girl whom he had met, but somewhere, in pictured form, he must surely have seen such a face, for it struck some sleeping chord of memory. A fantasy perhaps of some Norse goddess or Flame Deity; a wild, weird head, painted in reds and whites, with wonderful shaded locks, and small white face aglow with the fire within. His lips twisted in an involuntary smile. Could anything be more aggressively unlike "the sweet m-o-oss rose" of which she had spoken? "I guess if you go to the root of things, a man's picture of a woman is cut out to fit into his own niche! If he's very big himself, there's only a little corner left for her--a nookey little corner where the moss can grow, but the plant don't have much scope to spread. If he don't take much stock of himself, he kind-er stands back, and gives her the front place. Then she gets her chance, and shoots ahead!" Guest laughed in his turn; an exasperating little laugh, eloquent of an immense superiority and disdain. "You speak in an allegory--an allegory of English and American life. I am quite aware that with you the sexes have reversed positions, that the man has sunk into a money-making machine, who slaves so that his wife may spend, while the woman devotes her whole life to dress and frivolity--" "Have you ever been in my country?" Cornelia was brought up short and sharp by an unexpected assent. To disparage America was an unforgivable offence, and she was prepared to denounce the judgment of ignorance in words of flame. Her anger was not abated, but merely turned in another direction, by the discovery that it was not ignorance, but blindness which she had now to denounce--the blindness of the obtuse Englishman who had been granted a privilege which he was incapable of appreciating. "Some people travel about with such a heap of prejudice as baggage that they might as well stay at home and be done with it. Englishmen pride themselves on being conservative, and if they've once gotten an idea into their heads, it takes more'n they'll ever see with their eyes to get it out. I guess you spent your time in my country seeing just exactly what you'd calculated on from the start. It's big enough to rear all sorts, and enlightened enough to hold 'em!"