one of us knows! I will tell you all some day--soon, I hope, very soon. I
am angry now!--Poor little tramping child!"

I saw I had been behaving presumptuously: I had wanted to argue while yet
in absolute ignorance of the thing in hand! Had not my uncle taught me
the folly of reasoning from the ideal where I knew nothing of the actual!
The ideal must be our guide how to treat the actual, but the actual must
be there to treat! One thing more I saw--that there could be no likeness
between his mother and my uncle!

"Will you tell me something about yourself, then?" I said.

"That would not be interesting!" he objected.

"Then why are you here?" I returned.

"Can any person without a history be interesting?"

"Yes," he answered: "a person that was going to have a history might be
interesting."

"Could a person with a history that was not worth telling, be
interesting? But I know yours will interest me in the hearing, therefore
it ought to interest you in the telling.

"I see," he rejoined, with his merry laugh, I shall have to be careful!
My lady will at once pounce upon the weak points of my logic!"

"I am no logician," I answered; "I only know when I don't know a thing.
My uncle has taught me that wisdom lies in that,"