"Exactly: so you'd like them to wait and work and keep on loving till they made you relent, or plainly proved that it was no use." "If they were good as well as constant, I think I should relent in time." "I'll mention that to Pemberton; for he seemed to be hit the hardest, and a ray of hope will do him good, whether he is equal to the ten years' wait or not," put in Steve, who liked to rally Rose about her lovers. "I'll never forgive you if you say a word to any one. It is only Mac's odd way of asking questions, and I ought not to answer them. You _will_ talk about such things, and I can't stop you; but I don't like it," said Rose, much annoyed. "Poor little Penelope! she shall not be teased about her suitors, but left in peace till her Ulysses comes home," said Mac, sitting down to read the mottoes sticking out of certain fanciful bonbons on the table. "It is this fuss about Archie which has demoralized us all. Even the owl waked up, and hasn't got over the excitement yet, you see. He's had no experience, poor fellow; so he doesn't know how to behave," observed Steve, regarding his bouquet with tender interest. "That's true; and I asked for information, because I may be in love myself some day, and all this will be useful, don't you see?" "You in love!" and Steve could not restrain a laugh at the idea of the bookworm a slave to the tender passion. Quite unruffled, Mac leaned his chin in both hands, regarding them with a meditative eye, and he answered in his whimsical way,-- "Why not? I intend to study love as well as medicine; for it is one of the most mysterious and remarkable diseases that afflict mankind, and the best way to understand it is to have it. I may catch it some day, and then I should like to know how to treat and cure it." "If you take it as badly as you did measles and hooping-cough, it will go hard with you, old fellow," said Steve, much amused with the fancy. "I want it to: no great experience comes or goes easily; and this is the greatest we can know, I believe, except death." Something in Mac's quiet tone and thoughtful eyes made Rose look at him in surprise; for she had never heard him speak in that way before. Steve also stared for an instant, equally amazed; then said below his breath, with an air of mock anxiety,-- "He's been catching something at the hospital, typhoid probably, and is beginning to wander. I'll take him quietly away before he gets any wilder. Come, old lunatic, we must be off." "Don't be alarmed: I'm all right and much obliged for your advice; for I fancy I shall be a desperate lover when my time comes, if it ever does. You don't think it impossible, do you?" and Mac put the question so soberly that there was a general smile. "Certainly not: you'll be a regular Douglas, tender and true," answered Rose, wondering what queer question would come next.