"Bless my soul! You don't mean to say you're in love?"

"Ah, yes. I love her with all my heart!" Mr. Liakos turned once more,
and his eyes followed one of the two girls.

The professor had listened with some uneasiness. While touched by the
judge's emotion, he was at the same time perhaps a little jealous of its
cause; he was surprised that his friend had never spoken of this love,
and vexed with himself that he had not divined it. But all these ideas
were so hazy that he could hardly have expressed them.

After a few moments' silence, and while the judge's passionate avowal
still lingered in his ears, he asked naively, and without stopping to
think:

"Which one?"

Mr. Liakos looked at the professor in astonishment, and although he did
not speak, the expression of his face said plainly, "Can you ask?"

Mr. Plateas clapped his hand to his forehead.

"Where were my wits!" he cried. "Excuse me, my dear friend; but seeing
only their backs, as I did a moment ago, I couldn't tell one from the
other; and I had forgotten that the elder sister's face would scarcely
inspire love. But the younger--SHE is charming!"

The judge listened without reply.

"Do you know," the professor went on, at last unburdening his mind, "I