She laughed very softly--almost under her breath; yet I fancied there was
a note of mockery in her mirth.

"Confess that you were very much shocked, Mr. Walmsley!" she said.

"Not in the least," I assured her.

She raised her eyebrows ever so slightly.

"Confess, then," she went on, "confess, Mr. Walmsley, that in all your
well-ordered life you have never heard such an admission made by two
apparently respectable people before."

"How do you know," I asked, "that my life has been well-ordered?"

"Look at yourself in the glass," she begged.

Scarcely knowing what I did, I turned round in my seat and obeyed her.
There is, perhaps, a certain preciseness about my appearance as well as my
attire. I am tall enough--well over six feet--but my complexion still
retains traces of my years in Africa and of my fondness for outdoor
sports. My hair is straight and I have never grown beard or mustache. I
felt, somehow, that I represented the things which in an Englishman are a
little derided by young ladies on the other side of the water.

"I can't help my appearance," I said, a little crossly. "I can assure you
that I am not a prig."

"Our young friend," Mr. Parker intervened, "has certainly earned his