"You're utterly mistaken."

"How would you feel if another woman came and took him away from you
to-morrow?"

"Took him away from me?" cried Christine, in a tone of surprise that made
Riatt laugh aloud.

"That's the wonderful thing about the so-called weaker sex," he said.
"Saying 'no' seems to have no terrors to them at all. The timidest girl
will refuse a man with no more trouble and anxiety than she would expend
on refusing a dinner invitation; whereas men, with all their vaunted
courage, are absolutely at the mercy of a determined woman. I have a
friend who has just married a girl--whom he three times explicitly
refused--only because she asked him to."

Miss Fenimer looked at him thoughtfully.

"Surely you exaggerate," she said.

He shook his head sadly.

"I wish I did," he returned, "but I assure you that is the great
secret--that any man would rather marry any woman than refuse her to her
face. You see, no graceful way for a man to say 'no' has ever been
discovered."

"Why, you poor defenseless creatures!" said Christine. "I'll teach you
some ways immediately. I couldn't bear to think of your going about a
prey to the first woman who proposed to you. Let us begin our lessons