"Our little friend is of a rather strange disposition," he observed-
-"She has the indifference of an old-world philosopher to the saying
of speeches that are merely socially agreeable. She is ardent in
soul, but suspicious in mind! She imagines that a pleasant word may
often be used to cover a treacherous action, and if a man is as rude
and blunt as myself, for example, she prefers that he should be rude
and blunt rather than that he should attempt to conceal his
roughness by an amiability which it is not his nature to feel." Here
he looked up at me from the careful scrutiny of his nearly flayed
pear. "Isn't that so?"

"Certainly,"--I answered--"But that's not a 'strange' or original
attitude of mind."

The corners of his ugly mouth curled satirically.

"Pardon me, dear lady, it is! The normal and strictly reasonable
attitude of the healthy human Pigmy is that It should accept as
gospel all that It is told of a nature soothing and agreeable to
Itself. It should believe, among other things, that It is a very
precious Pigmy among natural forces, destined to be immortal, and to
share with Divine Intelligence the privileges of Heaven. Put out by
the merest trifle, troubled by a spasm, driven almost to howling by
a toothache, and generally helpless in all very aggravated adverse
circumstances, It should still console Itself with the idea that Its
being, Its proportions and perfections are superb enough to draw
down Deity into a human shape as a creature of human necessities in
order that It, the Pigmy, should claim kinship with the Divine now
and for ever! What gorgeous blasphemy in such a scheme!--what