"I am glad to have been of service to Miss Monfort," he rejoined,
deferentially, "but I merely obeyed an impulse strong with me. I should
have been wanting to myself to have done otherwise than defend a
helpless woman."

"There could not have been a more favorable opening to your
acquaintance, certainly," observed Evelyn significantly; then, turning
away and crossing the apartment, she applied herself to the
entertainment of the elder Mr. Bainrothe, "Mr. Basil," as we called him
after his son came, by way of distinction between the two, since the
word "old" seemed invidious in his case, and we characterized them as we
would have done two brothers.

Indeed, in manner, in bearing, in something of quiet repose entirely
wanting in the father, and which usually seems the accompaniment of age
or experience, the son seemed the elder man of the two. I had yet to
learn that there is an experience so perfect and subtle that it assumes
the air of ignorance, and triumphs in its simplicity over inferior craft
itself.

When the mind has worked out the problems of life to its own
satisfaction, like the school-boy who has proved his sums, it wipes the
slate clean again and sets down the bare result--the laborious process
it effaces. All is simplified.

"I was fearful that you had been hurt last night, Mr. Bainrothe," I
hazarded, "from the expression of your face as I caught it at the
box-door. I am glad to see you well this evening."

"I _was_ hurt," he said, "to be frank with you. The scoundrel gave me a