"Which one? 'Lest thy love prove likewise variable'? Juliet was
saying it to a MAN, you know. She seems to have been ready to
worry about his constancy pretty early in their affair!"

Her companion was again thoughtful. "Yes," he said, seeming to
be rather irksomely impressed with Alice's suggestion. "Yes; it
does appear so."

Alice glanced at his serious face, and yielded to an audacious
temptation. "You mustn't take it so hard," she said, flippantly.
"It isn't about you: it's only about Romeo and Juliet."

"See here!" he exclaimed. "You aren't at your mind-reading
again, are you? There are times when it won't do, you know!"

She leaned toward him a little, as if companionably: they were
walking slowly, and this geniality of hers brought her shoulder
in light contact with his for a moment. "Do you dislike my
mind-reading?" she asked, and, across their two just touching
shoulders, gave him her sudden look of smiling wistfulness. "Do
you hate it?"

He shook his head. "No, I don't," he said, gravely. "It's quite
pleasant. But I think it says, 'Gentlemen, beware!'"

She instantly moved away from him, with the lawless and frank
laugh of one who is delighted to be caught in a piece of
hypocrisy. "How lovely!" she cried. Then she pointed ahead.
"Our walk is nearly over. We're coming to the foolish little
house where I live. It's a queer little place, but my father's