"You were not at school together. She is four or five years older than
you."

"Only three. When she got married she seemed to me to be almost
venerable. Three years seemed a long time then."

"But now you fancy that you have formed a right idea of what is meant by
three years?"

"Well, a better idea, at any rate."

"You are still a good way off it. But if you have formed a right
estimate of a woman's friendship----"

"That's still something, you mean to say? But why did you stop short,
Mr. Courtland?"

Phyllis was looking up to his face with a smile of inquiry.

"I was afraid that you might think I was on the way to preach a sermon
on the text of woman's friendship. I pulled myself up just in time. I'm
glad that I didn't frighten you."

"Oh, no; you didn't frighten me, Mr. Courtland. I was only wondering
how you would go on--whether you would treat the topic sentimentally or
cynically."

"And what conclusion did you come to on the subject?"

"I know that you are a brave man--perhaps the bravest man alive. You