"That is just what I was thinking about. Do you remember also how he
ridiculed the Louvre after his first trip to Paris, and swore that
nothing would ever induce him to enter it again?"

"He has got more sense now. He says in the letter that he spent
yesterday there."

"Not exactly. He says '_we_ spent a pleasant day looking at the
pictures.' Who is '_we_'?"

"Some companion of his, I suppose. Why?"

"I was just thinking could it be the person who has matched the silk so
well. The same woman, I mean."

"Oh, Nelly!"

"Oh, Marian! Do you suppose Marmaduke would spend an afternoon at the
Louvre with a man, who could just as well go by himself? Do men match
silks?"

"Of course they do. Any fly-fisher can do it better than a woman.
Really, Nell, you have an odious imagination."

"Yes--when my imagination is started on an odious track. Nothing will
persuade me that Marmaduke cares a straw for Constance. He does not want
to marry her, though he is too great a coward to own it."

"Why do you say so? I grant you he is unceremonious and careless. But he