brother. I think him one of the finest creatures I ever knew perhaps
the finest I ever did know. His energy and good-nature together are
just the qualities to make the best kind of man. I am proud of him as
my friend and my cousin, and now you may suspect what you please.'

'But, my dear, why should not he fall in love with you? It would be the
most proper, and also the most convenient thing in the world.'

'I hate talking of falling in love as though a woman had nothing else
to think of whenever she sees a man.'

'A woman has nothing else to think of.'

'I have a great deal else. And so has he.'

'It's quite out of the question on his part, then?'

'Quite out of the question. I'm sure he likes me; I can see it in his
face, and hear it in his voice, and am so happy that it is so. But it
isn't in the way that you mean. Heaven knows that I may want a friend
some of these days, and I feel that I may trust to him. His feelings to
me will be always those of a brother.'

'Perhaps so. I have seen that fraternal love before under similar
circumstances, and it has always ended in the same way.'

'I hope it won't end in any way between us.'

'But the joke is that this suspicion, as you call it which makes you so
indignant is simply a suggestion that a thing should happen which, of