“Now, look at me,” she continued.  “Oh, I didn’t mean really—­I mean figuratively; but never mind.  Now, I’m nothing but a bubble and a toy, and I ache to be considered a philosopher.  Don’t you remember my telling you what a philosopher I was, the very first conversation that we ever had together?  I do try so hard to delude myself into thinking I am one, that some days I’m almost sure that I really am one.  Last night, for instance, I was thinking how nice it would be for my Cousin Maude to marry you.”

“Ye gods!” cried Jack.

“She’s so very rich,” Mrs. Rosscott pursued calmly; “and you know the law of heredity is an established scientific fact now, so you could feel quite safe as to her nose skipping the next generation.”

Jack was audibly amused.

“It’s not anything to laugh over,” his companion continued gravely.  “It’s something to ponder and pray over.  If I were Maude I should be on my knees about it most of the time.”

“Nothing can help her now,” said Jack.  “Her parents have been and gone and done it, as far as she’s concerned, forever.  Prayer won’t change her nose, although age may broaden it still more.”

“Don’t you believe that nothing can help her now.  A good-looking husband could help her lots.  I’ve seen homelier girls than she go just everywhere—­ on account of their husbands, you know.  That was where my philosophy came in.”

“I’d quite forgotten your philosophy.”  He laughed again as he spoke.  “I must apologize.  Please tell me more about it.”

She laughed, too.

“I’m going to.  You see, I was lying there, looking out at the moon, and thinking how nice it would be for Maude to marry you.”

“Did you consider me at all?” he interposed.

“How you interrupt!” she declared, in exasperation.  “You never let me finish.”

“I am dumb.”

“Well, I thought how nice it would be for Maude to marry you.  You’d have a baron for a papa-in-law, and an heiress to balance Aunt Mary with.  If you went into consumption and had to retreat to Arizona for a term of years, the climate could not ruin her complexion as it would m—­most people’s.  And she’s so ready to have you that it’s almost pathetic.  I can’t imagine anything more awful than to be as ready to marry a man who is’nt at all desirous of so doing, as Maude is of marrying you.  But if you would only think about it.  I thought and thought about it last night and the longer I thought the more it seemed like such a nice arrangement all around; and then—­all of a sudden—­do you know I began to wonder if I was philosopher enough to enjoy being matron-of-honor to Maude and really—­”

“At the wedding I could have kissed you!” he exclaimed, and suddenly subsided at the look with which she withered his boldness.

“And really I wasn’t altogether sure; and then, it occurred to me that nothing on the face of the earth would ever persuade you to marry Maude.  And I saw my card castle go smashing down, and then I saw that I really am a philosopher, after all, for—­for I didn’t mind a bit!”