"You said you liked it," she protested.

"Yes, where they hugged the poor young man," I returned, "but
after that, Verna, it went off the track altogether."

"Perhaps you'll put it back again," she said.

"I want to correct all that about the daughter of the castle," I
said. "She never became an old maid at all, for, of course, the
poor young man loved her to distraction and married her right off,
and they lived happily together ever afterwards!"

"I believe that is nicer," she said thoughtfully, as though
considering the matter.

"Truer, too," I said, "because really the poor young man adored
her from the first minute of their meeting!"

"I wonder how long it will take him to make his fortune," she
said, which, under the circumstances, struck me as a cruel thing
to say.

"Possibly he has made it already," I said. "How do you know he
hasn't?"

"By his looks for one thing," she said, regarding the machine oil
on my cuff out of the corner of her eye. "Besides, he hasn't any
of the arrogance of a parvenu, and is much too----"

"Too what?" I asked.