ORRIN HAS COME BACK. Striding impetuously into the room where I sat at work, he drew himself up till his figure showed itself in all its full and graceful proportions.
“Am I a man?” he asked, “or,” with a fall in his voice brimmed with feeling, “am I a fool? She met me with such an unsuspicious look, Philo, and bore herself with such an innocent air, that I not only could not say what I meant to say, but have promised to do what I have sworn never to do—accept the Colonel’s unwelcome gift, and make her mistress of the new stone house.”
“You are—a man,” I answered. For what are men but fools where women of such enchantment are concerned!
He groaned, perhaps at the secret sarcasm hidden in my tone, and sat down unbidden at the table where I was writing.
“You did not see her,” he cried. “
