"Mr. Arbuthnot came in this morning and told us you were coming," he said. "You know him pretty well, I suppose." "I see him rather frequently," answered Agnes; "but perhaps I do not know him very well." "Ah!" said Tom. "You've got to know him very well to find out what sort of fellow he is; you've got to know him as _I_ know him--as _we_ know him. Eh! Kitty?" "Yes," responded Kitty, a little startled by finding herself referred to; "only you know him best, Tom. You see, you're a man"-- "Yes," said Tom, with innocent complacency, "of course it's easier for men to understand each other. You see"--to Agnes, though with a fond glance at Kitty--"Kitty was a little afraid of him. She's shy, and hasn't seen much of the world, and he's such a swell, in a quiet way, and when she used to come to the office for me, and caught a glimpse of him, she thought he was always making fun of everything." "I thought he _looked_ as if he was," put in Kitty. "And his voice sounded that way when he spoke to you, Tom. I even used to think, sometimes, that he was laughing a little at _you_--and I didn't like it." "Bless you!" responded Tom, "he wasn't thinking of such a thing. He's got too much principle to make friends with a fellow, and then laugh at him. What I've always liked in him was his principle." "I think there are a great many things to like in him," said Mrs. Sylvestre. "There's everything to like in him," said Tom, "though, you see, I didn't find that out at first. The truth is, I thought he was rather too much of a swell for his means. I've told him so since we've been more intimate, and he said that I was not mistaken; that he was too much of a swell for his means, but that was the fault of his means, and the government ought to attend to it as a sacred duty. You see the trouble is he hasn't a family. And what a fellow he would be to take care of a woman! I told him that, too, once, and he threw back his head and laughed; but he didn't laugh long. It seemed to me that it set him off thinking, he was so still after it." "He'd be very good to his wife," said Kitty, timidly. "He's very kind to me." "Yes," Tom went on, rejoicing in himself, "he sees things that men don't see, generally. Think of his noticing that you weren't wrapped up enough that cold day we met him, and going into his place to get a shawl from his landlady, and making me put it on!" "And don't you remember," said Kitty, "the day he made me so ashamed, because he said my basket was too heavy, and would carry it all the way home for me?" Tom laughed triumphantly.