“I did not say that.  You want to quarrel with me.  It is too bad of you to be guided by what other people say about me.”

“How can I want to quarrel with you?  I should be quarrelling with all my new books,” said Mary, lifting the volume on the table.  “However naughty you may be to other people, you are good to me.”

“Because I like you better than any one else.  But I know you despise me.”

“Yes, I do—­a little,” said Mary, nodding, with a smile.

“You would admire a stupendous fellow, who would have wise opinions about everything.”

“Yes, I should.”  Mary was sewing swiftly, and seemed provokingly mistress of the situation.  When a conversation has taken a wrong turn for us, we only get farther and farther into the swamp of awkwardness.  This was what Fred Vincy felt.

“I suppose a woman is never in love with any one she has always known—­ ever since she can remember; as a man often is.  It is always some new fellow who strikes a girl.”

“Let me see,” said Mary, the corners of her mouth curling archly; “I must go back on my experience.  There is Juliet—­she seems an example of what you say.  But then Ophelia had probably known Hamlet a long while; and Brenda Troil—­she had known Mordaunt Merton ever since they were children; but then he seems to have been an estimable young man; and Minna was still more deeply in love with Cleveland, who was a stranger.  Waverley was new to Flora MacIvor; but then she did not fall in love with him.  And there are Olivia and Sophia Primrose, and Corinne—­they may be said to have fallen in love with new men.  Altogether, my experience is rather mixed.”

Mary looked up with some roguishness at Fred, and that look of hers was very dear to him, though the eyes were nothing more than clear windows where observation sat laughingly.  He was certainly an affectionate fellow, and as he had grown from boy to man, he had grown in love with his old playmate, notwithstanding that share in the higher education of the country which had exalted his views of rank and income.

“When a man is not loved, it is no use for him to say that he could be a better fellow—­could do anything—­I mean, if he were sure of being loved in return.”

“Not of the least use in the world for him to say he could be better.  Might, could, would—­they are contemptible auxiliaries.”

“I don’t see how a man is to be good for much unless he has some one woman to love him dearly.”

“I think the goodness should come before he expects that.”

“You know better, Mary.  Women don’t love men for their goodness.”

“Perhaps not.  But if they love them, they never think them bad.”

“It is hardly fair to say I am bad.”

“I said nothing at all about you.”

“I never shall be good for anything, Mary, if you will not say that you love me—­if you will not promise to marry me—­I mean, when I am able to marry.”