'Well,' I said, 'I am not going to gratify you by saying anything
against her.'

'You don't deserve her, you know.'

'I won't dispute that. But, if you don't mind--I'm not sure that
I'll stand being abused, dear boy.'

'I quite see it isn't any use. Though one spoke with the tongues of
men and of angels--'

'And had not charity,' I continued for him. 'Precisely. I won't go
on, but your quotation is very apt.'

'I so bow down before her simplicity. It makes a wide and beautiful
margin for the rest of her character. She is a girl Ruskin would
have loved.'

'I wonder,' said I. 'He did seem fond of the simple type, didn't
he?'

'Her mind is so clear, so transparent. The motive spring of
everything she says and does is so direct. Don't you find you can
most completely depend upon her?'

'Oh yes,' I said; 'certainly. I nearly always know what she is
going to say before she says it, and under given circumstances I can
tell precisely what she will do.'

'I fancy her sense of duty is very beautifully developed.'