"Don't say you dislike it, Alfred," said Regina, with pathetic wistfulness. "I don't say I dislike it, at the same time--it isn't you," he replied. "Put the hat on--let's see you in it. Yes--I don't know. It's a pity to hide a forehead like yours with all that loose hair. I know women are all wearing it so; but at the same time, I think it is a pity." "I've got to look such a frump, Alfred," said Regina, taking the hat off again and patting her hair into place. "No, my dear, that you never did. You have a distinctiveness all your own. As to this new-fangled arrangement--well, if it pleases you to do it that way, you must do it that way and we must get used to it. Perhaps, in a little while, we shall like it better than as it was before." "But it does not meet with your unqualified approval, Alfred?" said Regina. "No, I can't say that it does." "It makes me look younger," she asserted. "But I don't want you to look younger. We were a very good match for each other as we were, and I don't know that it _does_ make you look younger. Well, well, let it be for a day or two till one gets accustomed to the change. As it is, it doesn't seem right to have you, of all women in the world, thinking about vanities." "Why not?" said Regina in a very small voice. At that moment Julia betook herself out of the room, shutting the door as if she did not want to hear any more of what passed between her parents. "Why not?" repeated Regina. "Well, they don't seem to be in keeping with you. One never thinks of you as having nerves or the megrims, of being offended about nothing and having to be coaxed back again into a good temper. You are the kind of woman one gives a present to because one desires to give you pleasure, not because you are to be made to forget some vexation or some disappointment. You are unlike other women, Regina." And Regina immediately decided that the hussy was a person of moods! CHAPTER XXVI THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW PATH It is odd that, while business is a mantle sufficiently ample to cover a whole lifetime of sins, we usually credit any pastime with being the cloak of a good deal of wickedness.