Isabel sprang upon her offspring with a cry of despair.  “Oh, what shall I do?  Now we shall not have a wink of sleep with them to-night.  Where is that nux?” She hunted for the medicine in her bag, and the children submitted; for they had eaten all the cherries, and they took their medicine without a murmur.  “I wonder at your letting them eat the sour things, Basil,” said their mother, when the children bad run off to the newsstand again.

“I wonder that you left me to see what they were doing,” promptly retorted their father.

“It was your nonsense about the brides,” said Isabel; “and I think this has been a lesson to us.  Don’t let them get anything else to eat, dearest.”

“They are safe; they have no more money.  They are frugally confining themselves to the admiration of the Japanese bows and arrows yonder.  Why have our Indians taken to making Japanese bows and arrows?”

Isabel despised the small pleasantry.  “Then you saw nobody at the hotel?” she asked.

“Not even the Ellisons,” said Basil.

“Ah, yes,” said Isabel; “that was where we met them.  How long ago it seems!  And poor little Kitty!  I wonder what has become of them?  But I’m glad they’re not here.  That’s what makes you realize your age:  meeting the same people in the same place a great while after, and seeing how old—­they’ve grown.  I don’t think I could bear to see Kitty Ellison again.  I’m glad she did n’t come to visit us in Boston, though, after what happened, she could n’t, poor thing!  I wonder if she ’s ever regretted her breaking with him in the way she did.  It’s a very painful thing to think of,—­such an inconclusive conclusion; it always seemed as if they ought to meet again, somewhere.”

“I don’t believe she ever wished it.”

“A man can’t tell what a woman wishes.”

“Well, neither can a woman,” returned Basil, lightly.

His wife remained serious.  “It was a very fine point,—­a very little thing to reject a man for.  I felt that when I first read her letter about it.”

Basil yawned.  “I don’t believe I ever knew just what the point was.”

“Oh yes, you did; but you forget everything.  You know that they met two Boston ladies just after they were engaged, and she believed that he did n’t introduce her because he was ashamed of her countrified appearance before them.”

“It was a pretty fine point,” said Basil, and he laughed provokingly.

“He might not have meant to ignore her,” answered Isabel thoughtfully; “he might have chosen not to introduce her because he felt too proud of her to subject her to any possible misappreciation from them.  You might have looked at it in that way.”

“Why didn’t you look at it in that way?  You advised her against giving him another chance.  Why did you?”

“Why?” repeated Isabel, absently.  “Oh, a woman does n’t judge a man by what he does, but by what he is!  I knew that if she dismissed him it was because she never really had trusted or could trust his love; and I thought she had better not make another trial.”