“To be of any real value, the feminine intuition must be confirmed by the masculine judgment. Its use is purely supplementary.” “Oh, Mr Burgrave, you can’t really mean that! Why, my brother would never dream of doing anything without consulting his wife. He thinks most highly of her judgment.” “Surely Major North is the best judge of his own affairs?” suggested Mr Burgrave dryly. “If he has confidence in his wife’s judgment, it is only natural he should wish to avail himself of it. Such would not be my case, I confess, but then, the confidence would be wanting.” “But, according to you, I ought to model my opinions on some one’s,” said Mabel--“Dick’s, I suppose--and that’s just what you have been scolding me for doing.” “Dick’s?” said the Commissioner reflectively. “No, not Dick’s, I think. That was not at all what I had in my mind, Miss North. And have I been scolding you, or is that another mistaken intuition? You know how gladly I would have accepted your view of Bahram Khan’s guilt, if that had been possible?” “I know you said so, and I hoped so much----” Mabel’s eyes were full of tears. “And do you know why that was?” “No, indeed, I can’t imagine.” She spoke hastily, scenting danger. The Commissioner smiled paternally. “No? Then will you do me the favour to consider the matter? Ask yourself why I was willing, even anxious, to be converted from my own opinion. When you have arrived at the answer, I shall know.” He smiled at her again from his pillows, but Mabel muttered something incoherent and fled. “I don’t know what to do!” she cried, in the seclusion of her own room. “Does he think I am a baby, or a little school-girl? If he wants to propose, why can’t he do it straight out, and take his refusal like a man? I know how to manage that sort of thing. But to break the idea to me gradually in this way, as if I was--oh, I don’t know what--a sort of fairy that must be handled gently for fear it should vanish into thin air--it’s insufferable! And the worst of it is, I can’t quite make out how to stop it. I seem somehow to have got myself into his power.”