maladies.

"Poor little fellow!" she said softly, and, as she was obliged to drop the
white, thickly-fringed lids and fall to pleating her handkerchief
industriously, she felt rather than saw that he was looking at her
narrowly.

There was a moment's silence, and then Mr. Ramsay began talking again.
"You are very happy here, aren't you? You wouldn't like to leave it and go
away to India, or Egypt, or--or--England, or anywhere?" said this
particularly deep young man, and, without waiting for any answer, except
such as was afforded by her rosy silence, went on: "American girls do have
lots of fun, I see that. I am afraid they are too fond of flirting,
though. English girls don't get much of a chance at that, as girls. They
don't amount to much until they are married and get their own way."

"Why, they don't flirt after they are _married_, do they?" said Bijou, in
a horrified tone, her ideal of post-matrimonial conduct being the exact
opposite of the ante-matrimonial.

"Oh, don't they, just!" said Mr. Ramsay cheerfully. "You see, as girls
they are heavily handicapped. They can't do anything they like, or go
anywhere; it's awfully slow for them, poor things. And so they naturally
look forward to the time when they will get their liberty as well as a
husband. But the competition must be something awful. A fellow that has
got a fine property or money is regularly hunted down; and even a poor
devil like me has to be monstrous careful. Cowrie, of the Carbineers, who
has got sixty thousand a year, says that he can't go to certain houses,
for fear they may have a clergyman secreted about the place and will get
him spliced to the ugliest daughter before he can escape. Awfully clever