“Really, Mr. Colleton, you seem to have looked somewhat into the philosophy of this subject, and you may be right in the inferences to which you have come.  On this point I may say nothing; but, do you conceive it altogether fair in you thus to compliment us at our own expense?  You give us the credit of truth, a high eulogium, I grant, in matters which relate to the the affections and the heart; but this is done by robbing us entirely of mental independence.  You are a kind of generous outlaw, a moral Robin Hood, you compel us to give up everything we possess, in order that you may have the somewhat equivocal merit of restoring back a small portion of what you take.”

“True, and this, I am afraid, Miss Lucy, however by the admission I forfeit for my sex all reputation for chivalry, is after all the precise relationship between us.  The very fact that the requisitions made by our sex produce immediate concession from yours, establishes the dependence of which you complain.”

“You mistake me, sir.  I complain not of the robbery—–­far from it; for, if we do lose the possession of a commodity so valuable, we are at least freed from the responsibility of keeping it.  The gentlemen, nowadays, seldom look to us for intellectual gladiatorship; they are content that our weakness should shield us from the war.  But, I conceive the reproach of our poverty to come unkindly from those who make us poor.  It is of this, sir, that I complain.”

“You are just, and justly severe, Miss Munro; but what else have you to expect?  Amazon-like, your sex, according to the quaint old story, sought the combat, and were not unwilling to abide the conditions of the warfare.  The taunt is coupled with the triumph—­the spoil follows the victory—­and the captive is chained to the chariot-wheel of his conqueror, and must adorn the march of his superior by his own shame and sorrows.  But, to be just to myself, permit me to say, that what you have considered a reproach was in truth designed as a compliment.  I must regret that my modes of expression are so clumsy, that, in the utterance of my thought, the sentiment so changed its original shape as entirely to lose its identity.  It certainly deserved the graceful swordsmanship which foiled it so completely.”

“Nay, sir,” said the animated girl, “you are bloodily-minded toward yourself, and it is matter of wonder to me how you survive your own rebuke.  So far from erring in clumsy phrase, I am constrained to admit that I thought, and think you, excessively adroit and happy in its management.  It was only with a degree of perversity, intended solely to establish our independence of opinion, at least for the moment, that I chose to mistake and misapprehend you.  Your remark, clothed in any other language, could scarcely put on a form more consistent with your meaning.”

Ralph bowed at a compliment which had something equivocal in it, and this branch of the conversation having reached its legitimate close, a pause of some few moments succeeded, when they found themselves joined by other parties, until the cortege was swollen in number to the goodly dimensions of a cavalcade or caravan designed for a pilgrimage.