thoughts; "you will find me sane to the verge of commonplace."

Richard's stare was the mate to Mr. Fopling's; he could not decide just
how to lay hold on the sibyl of the golden locks. Perceiving him
wandering in his wits, Dorothy took him up warmly.

"Can't you see Bess is laughing at you?" she cried.

"You know her so much better than I," argued Richard, in extenuation of
his dullness. "Some day I hope to be so well acquainted with Miss
Marklin as to know when she laughs."

"You are to know her as well as I do," returned Dorothy, with decision,
"for Bess is my dearest friend."

"And that, I'm sure," observed Richard, craftily measuring forth a
two-edged compliment, "is the highest possible word that could be spoken
of either."

At this speech Dorothy was visibly disarmed; whereat Richard
congratulated himself.

"To be earnest with you, Mr. Storms," said Bess, with just a flash of
teasing wickedness towards Dorothy, "I go about, even now, carrying the
impression of knowing you extremely well. Dorothy reads me your letters
from the _Daily Tory_; she has elevated literary tastes, you know. No,
it is not what you write, it is the way you write it, that charms her;
and, that I may the better appreciate, she obligingly accompanies her
readings with remarks descriptive of the author."