‘You uncivilised little heathen!’ Then, very gravely, ’Well, how is poor Lesbia?’

‘Do not waste your pity on her,’ I returned impatiently.  ’She is as well and cheerful as possible.  Even Sara says so.  She is not breaking her heart about Charlie.  She has left off mourning, and is as gay as ever.’

‘You are always hard on Lesbia,’ he returned gently.  ’She is young, my dear, you forget that, and a pretty girl, and very much admired.  It always seems to me she was very fond of the poor fellow.’

’She was good to him in his illness, but she never cared for Charlie as he did for her.  He worshipped the very ground she walked on.  He thought her perfection.  Uncle Max, it was pitiful to hear him sometimes.  He would tell me how sweet and unselfish she was, and all the time I knew she was but an ordinary, commonplace girl.  If he had lived to marry her he would have been disappointed in her.  He was so large-hearted, and Lesbia has such little aims.’

’So you always say, Ursula.  But you women are so severe in your judgment of each other.  I doubt myself if the girl lives whom you would have considered good enough for Charlie.  Yes, yes, my dear,’—­as I uttered a dissenting protest to this,—­’he was a fine fellow, and his was a most lovable character; but it was his last illness that ripened him.’

‘He was always perfect in my eyes,’ I returned, in a choked voice.

’That was because you loved him; and no doubt Lesbia possessed the same ideal goodness for him.  Love throws its own glamour,’ he went on, and his voice was unusually grave; ’it does not believe in commonplace mediocrity; it lifts up its idol to some fanciful pedestal, where the poor thing feels very uncomfortable and out of its element, and then persists in falling down and worshipping it.  We humans are very droll, Ursula:  we will create our own divinities.’

‘Lesbia would have disappointed him,’ I persisted obstinately; but I might as well have talked to the wind.  Uncle Max could not find it in his heart to be hard to a pretty girl.

’That is open to doubt, my dear.  Lesbia is amiable and charming, and I daresay she would have made a nice little wife.  Poor Charlie hated clever women, and in that respect she would have suited him.’

After this I knew it was no good in trying to change his opinion.  Uncle Max held his own views with remarkable tenacity; he had old-fashioned notions with respect to women, rather singular in so young a man,—­for he was only thirty; he preferred to believe in their goodness, in spite of any amount of demonstration to the contrary; it vexed him to be reminded of the shortcomings of his friends; by nature he was an optimist, and had a large amount of faith in people’s good intentions.  ’He meant well, poor fellow, in spite of his failures,’ was a speech I have heard more than once from his lips.  He was always ready to condone a fault or heal a breach; indeed, his sweet nature found it difficult to bear a grudge against any one; he was only hard to himself, and on no one else did he strive to impose so heavy a yoke.  I was only silent for a minute, and then I turned the conversation into another channel.