be very much what she pleases. You certainly have had a chance to
find out what pleases most women in your circle of acquaintances,
and have made it quite clear what pleases you."

"Satire again," she said, despondently. "I thought perhaps you
could advise and help me."

He came and took her face between his hands, looking earnestly into
her troubled blue eyes.

"Are you not content to be a conventional woman?" he asked, after
a moment.

"No!" was her emphatic answer.

"Well, there are many ways of being a little outre in this age
and land, especially at this stormy period. Perhaps you want a
career,--something that will give you a larger place in the public
eye?"

She turned away to hide the tears that would come. "O papa, you
don't understand me at all, and I scarcely understand myself," she
faltered. "In some respects you are as conventional as mamma, and
are almost a Turk in your ideas of the seclusion of women. The idea
of my wanting public notoriety! As I feel now, I'd rather go to a
convent."

"We'll go to dinner first; then a short drive in the park, for you
look pale, and I long for a little fresh air myself. I have been
at my desk since seven this morning, and have had only a sandwich."