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I laughed in his face. 'My dear boy,' I answered, laying one hand on his shoulder, 'may I say the plain truth? A blind bat could see you are madly in love with her.'

His mouth twitched. 'That's very serious!' he answered, gravely; 'very serious.'

'It is,' I responded, with my best paternal manner, gazing blankly in front of me.

He stopped short again. 'Look here,' he said, facing me. 'Are you busy? No? Then come back with me to my rooms; and—I'll make a clean breast of it.'

'By all means,' I assented. 'When one is young—and foolish, I have often noticed, as a medical man, that a drachm of clean breast is a magnificent prescription.'

He walked back by my side, talking all the way of Daphne's many adorable qualities. He exhausted the dictionary for laudatory adjectives. By the time I reached his door it was not his fault if I had not learned that the angelic hierarchy were not in the running with my pretty cousin for graces and virtues. I felt that Faith, Hope, and Charity ought to resign at once in favour of Miss Daphne Tepping, promoted.

He took me into his comfortably furnished rooms—the luxurious rooms of a rich young bachelor, with taste as well as money—and offered me a partaga. Now, I have long observed, in the course of my practice, that a choice cigar assists a man in taking a philosophic outlook on the question under discussion; so I accepted the partaga. He sat down opposite me and pointed to a photograph in the centre of his mantelpiece. 'I am engaged to that lady,' he put in, shortly.

'So I anticipated,' I answered, lighting up.

He started and looked surprised. 'Why, what made you guess it?' he inquired.