‘Oh,’ in a low voice, ’that rascal!  But I will be even with him.  How many more of my speeches did Cunliffe repeat?’

‘Oh, I had heard enough,’ I replied hastily.  ’Does it not strike you as a little hard, Mr. Hamilton, that one should be judged beforehand in this harsh manner?—­that because some girls are full of vagaries, the whole sex must be condemned?’

’Oh, if you put it in that cut-and-dried way, I must plead guilty:  in fact, I should owe you some sort of apology, only’—­with a stress on the word—­’my speech was not intended for the house-top.  I am rather a sceptic about female missions, Miss Garston, and do not always measure my words when I am discussing abstract theories with a friend.  In my opinion Cunliffe is the one you ought to blame, though if the speech rankles I will take my share.’

‘I certainly wish you had not said it, Mr. Hamilton.’

’There, now,’—­in an injured voice,—­’that is the way you treat my handsome apology, and I am not a man ever to own myself in the wrong, mind you.  What does it matter, may I ask, what I think of girls in the abstract?  I had not met you, Miss Garston, or discussed the subject in its bearings:  so where may the offence lie?  Of course you have no answer ready; of course you have taken offence where none is meant.  This is so like a woman—­to undertake to renovate society, and lose her temper at the first adverse word.’

He was looking at me with a peculiar but not unkindly smile as he spoke; in fact, his expression was almost pleasant; but I was too much prejudiced to be softened.  I did not care in the least what he thought of my temper; I was quite sure he had one of his own.

‘No one likes to meet discouragement on the threshold,’ I answered curtly.

’Not if it comes out with timbrels and dances, like Jephtha’s daughter, to be sacrificed:  that was discouragement on the threshold with a vengeance.  I was always sorry for that old fellow.  Well, apropos of that touching remark,—­which, by the way, is exquisitely feminine,—­supposing we strike a truce.  I daresay you look upon me as an interfering stranger; but the fact is, I am the poor folk’s doctor down here; so you cannot work without me.  That alters the case, eh?’—­with a smile meant to be propitiatory, but really too triumphant for my taste.

’Under those circumstances I could wish that you had less narrow views of women’s work,’ I returned, with some warmth.

He opened his eyes so widely at this that at any other moment I should have been amused.

’By all that is wonderful, it is the first time I have been accused of narrowness.’  And here he gave a gruff little laugh.  ’I think I had better leave yon alone, Miss Garston, and label you “dangerous.”  There is a hot sparkle in your eyes that warns me to keep off the premises.  “Trespassers will be taken up.”  I begin to feel uncomfortable.  Cunliffe has put me en parole, and I dare not break bounds.  Can you manage to sit in the same room a little longer with such a heretic?’