world?"

"How extravangantly you talk!" she replied. "What strange things you
say!"

"Yes, dear, because love is strange--the strangest, sweetest thing in
life. It comes once only to the heart, and the one person loved is
infinitely more than all others. Do you not understand that?"

"Oh no; what do you mean, Smith?"

"Is there any other person dearer to your heart than I am?"

"I love every one in the house, some more than others. Those that are
closely related to me I love most."

"Oh, please say no more! You love your people with one kind of love, but
me with a different love--is it not so?"

"There is only one kind of love," said she.

"Ah, you say that because you are a child yet, and do not know. You are
even younger than I thought, perhaps. How old are you, dear?"

"Thirty-one years old," she replied, with the utmost gravity.

"Oh, Yoletta, what an awful cram! I mean--oh, I beg your pardon for
being so rude! But--but don't you think you can draw it mild?
Thirty-one--what a joke! Why, I'm an old fellow compared with you, and
I'm not twenty-two yet. Do tell me what you mean, Yoletta?"