Montague spoke of a visit which he had paid to Laura Hegan, at one of the neighbouring estates.

“I had quite a talk with her,” said Alice.  “And she invited me to luncheon, and took me driving.  I like her better than I thought I would.  Don’t you like her, Allan?”

“I couldn’t say that I really know her,” said Montague.  “I thought I might like her, but she did not happen to like me.”

“But how could that be?” asked the girl.

Montague smiled.  “Tastes are different,” he said.

“But there must be some reason,” protested Alice.  “For she looks at many things in the same way that you do.  I told her I thought she would be interested to talk to you.”

“What did she say?” asked the other.

“She didn’t say anything,” answered Alice; and then suddenly she turned to him.  “I am sure you must know some reason.  I wish you would tell me.”

“I don’t know anything definite,” Montague answered.  “I have always imagined it had to do with Mrs. Winnie.”

“With Mrs. Winnie!” exclaimed Alice, in perplexing wonder.

“I suppose she heard gossip and believed it,” he added.

“But that is a shame!” exclaimed the girl.  “Why don’t you tell her the truth?”

“I tell her?” laughed Montague.  “I have no reason for telling her.  She doesn’t care anything in particular about me.”

He was silent for a moment or two.  “I thought of it once or twice,” he said.  “For it made me rather angry at first.  I saw myself going up to her, and startling her with the statement, ’What you believe about me is not true!’ Then again, I thought I might write her a letter and tell her.  But of course it would be absurd; she would never acknowledge that she had believed anything, and she would think I was impertinent.”

“I don’t believe she would do anything of the sort,” Alice answered.  “At least, not if she meant what she said to me.  She was talking about people one met in Society, and how tiresome and conventional it all was.  ’No one ever speaks the truth or deals frankly with you,’ she said.  ’All the men spend their time in paying you compliments about your looks.  They think that is all a woman cares about.  The more I come to know them, the less I think of them.’”

“That’s just it,” said Montague.  “One cannot feel comfortable knowing a girl in her position.  Her father is powerful, and some day she will be enormously rich herself; and the people who gather about her are seeking to make use of her.  I was interested in her when I first met her.  But when I learned more about the world in which she lives, I shrank from even talking to her.”

“But that is rather unfair to her,” said Alice.  “Suppose all decent people felt that way.  And she is really quite easy to know.  She told me about some charities she is interested in.  She goes down into the slums, on the East Side, and teaches poor children.  It seemed to me a wonderfully daring sort of thing, but she laughed when I said so.  She says those people are just the same as other people, when you come to know them; you get used to their ways, and then it does not seem so terrible and far off.”