"Myself, I have always been of opinion--" I remarked.

"Please don't chatter," said the Minor Poet.



CHAPTER III



"I never liked her," said the Old Maid; "I always knew she was
heartless."

"To my thinking," said the Minor Poet, "she has shown herself a true
woman."

"Really," said the Woman of the World, laughing, "I shall have to
nickname you Dr. Johnson Redivivus. I believe, were the subject
under discussion, you would admire the coiffure of the Furies. It
would occur to you that it must have been naturally curly."

"It is the Irish blood flowing in his veins," I told them. "He must
always be 'agin the Government.'"

"We ought to be grateful to him," remarked the Philosopher. "What
can be more uninteresting than an agreeable conversation I mean, a
conversation--where everybody is in agreement? Disagreement, on the
other hand, is stimulating."