"No. I am disposed to like you," she replied. "You weren't frank at first; but you have become frank since, and that makes you a pleasant companion. Oh! you will never know my abhorrence of the cant which politeness makes men and women talk. They treat each other like cats--stroke, and stroke, until truth is lost in a general purring. I like truthful people. They need not be insulting: they can always keep back unpleasant knowledge; but they need not _lie_. Polite people _must_ lie." I would not argue. It pleased me better to watch the varying expressions of her beautiful face, the soft curvings of her lips, the graceful gestures of her hands, than to contradict. "Good-bye," she said. "Until to-morrow," I answered. Near the gate I halted to pick up the rose-bud she had thrown from her, and pressed it to my lips. Peeping furtively toward the house, I saw she watched me from the window. CHAPTER IV. I said next day to Martelli, "You will see Mrs. Fraser this afternoon, I hope. She has half promised to come and look at my flowers." "What have I to do with Mrs. Fraser?" he exclaimed with a shrug. "My business is with books, not women. I can understand the one, but not the other." "But I want to justify my love. Her beauty will do this for me." "Have I not seen her?" he asked, stretching out his arms. "Yes, by moonlight--with blank eyes and expressionless face. Her beauty by noon is somewhat different from her beauty by night." "Sir, yellow hair and black eyes make no charm for me." "You are a Goth." "When I was a young man I fell in love once a week. That proves a catholic taste, at all events, for my Hebes must have varied." "But you will let me introduce you to Mrs. Fraser? You can know and like without admiring her. You will be struck with her conversation." "Does she talk well?" "She talks strangely--what Shakespeare calls 'matter and impertinency mixed.' Her shrewd discursiveness pleases me." "Ah, Sir, you are willing to be pleased." "I cannot help being pleased. Her musical prattle is very different from the sort of entertainment I am used to in other women. Dull decorous reason I can get anywhere. _Her_ talk is rare as her beauty." "A kind of mad talk, Sir." "Mad, indeed! You shall hear her yourself and judge." "Pray excuse me. I will take my pipe, and while you enjoy your _tête-à-tête_ will search for curious objects on the beach." "Be it so, then," said I, somewhat chagrined: for I wanted to witness this chilly sceptic melting into admiration before my beautiful neighbour's eyes.