'There, now,'--in an injured voice,--'that is the way you treat my handsome apology, and I am not a man ever to own myself in the wrong, mind you. What does it matter, may I ask, what I think of girls in the abstract? I had not met you, Miss Garston, or discussed the subject in its bearings: so where may the offence lie? Of course you have no answer ready; of course you have taken offence where none is meant. This is so like a woman--to undertake to renovate society, and lose her temper at the first adverse word.' He was looking at me with a peculiar but not unkindly smile as he spoke; in fact, his expression was almost pleasant; but I was too much prejudiced to be softened. I did not care in the least what he thought of my temper; I was quite sure he had one of his own. 'No one likes to meet discouragement on the threshold,' I answered curtly. 'Not if it comes out with timbrels and dances, like Jephtha's daughter, to be sacrificed: that was discouragement on the threshold with a vengeance. I was always sorry for that old fellow. Well, _apropos_ of that touching remark,--which, by the way, is exquisitely feminine,--supposing we strike a truce. I daresay you look upon me as an interfering stranger; but the fact is, I am the poor folk's doctor down here; so you cannot work without me. That alters the case, eh?'--with a smile meant to be propitiatory, but really too triumphant for my taste. 'Under those circumstances I could wish that you had less narrow views of women's work,' I returned, with some warmth. He opened his eyes so widely at this that at any other moment I should have been amused. 'By all that is wonderful, it is the first time I have been accused of narrowness.' And here he gave a gruff little laugh. 'I think I had better leave yon alone, Miss Garston, and label you "dangerous." There is a hot sparkle in your eyes that warns me to keep off the premises. "Trespassers will be taken up." I begin to feel uncomfortable. Cunliffe has put me _en parole_, and I dare not break bounds. Can you manage to sit in the same room a little longer with such a heretic?' 'Heretics can be converted.' He shrugged his shoulders at this. 'Not such a hardened sceptic as myself. Now, look here, Miss Garston. I will say something civil. I believe you are in earnest; so it shall be _pax_ between us; and I will promise not to thwart you. As for women's mission in general, I believe their principal mission is not to stop at home and mind their own business; in fact, home and homely duties are the last straws that break the back of the emancipated woman.' And with these audacious words Mr. Hamilton stirred the fire again with prodigious energy. Happily, Uncle Max came into the room at that moment; so I was spared any reply. Max must have thought that I was suspiciously glad to see him, for he looked from one to the other rather anxiously.