forgot to say that when I chanced to be speaking of doughnuts, that
`unconquer'd Scot' asked me if a doughnut resembled a peanut? Can
you conceive such ignorance?"

"I think you were not only aggressively American, but painfully
provincial," said Salemina, with some warmth. "Why in the world
should you drag doughnuts into a dinner-table conversation in
Edinburgh? Why not select topics of universal interest?"

"Like the Currie Brig or the shade of Montrose," I murmured slyly.

"To one who has ever eaten a doughnut, the subject is of
transcendent interest; and as for one who has not--well, he should
be made to feel his limitations," replied Francesca, with a yawn.
"Come, let us forget our troubles in sleep; it is after midnight."

About half an hour later she came to my bedside, her dark hair
hanging over her white gown, her eyes still bright.

"Penelope," she said softly, "I did not dare tell Salemina, and I
should not confess it to you save that I am afraid Lady Baird will
complain of me; but I was dreadfully rude to the Reverend Ronald! I
couldn't help it; he roused my worst passions. It all began with
his saying he thought international marriages presented even more
difficulties to the imagination than the other kind. I hadn't said
anything about marriages nor thought anything about marriages of any
sort, but I told him INSTANTLY I considered that every international
marriage involved two national suicides. He said that he shouldn't
have put it quite so forcibly, but that he hadn't given much thought
to the subject. I said that I had, and I thought we had gone on