"He appeared embarrassed. 'It is really very absurd of me,' he said,
while the faintest suspicion of pink crossed his usually colourless face;
'but I feel I must talk to somebody about it. The fact is, my dear Mac,
I am in love.'
"'Capital!' I cried; 'I'm delighted to hear it.' (I thought it might
make a man of him.) 'Do I know the lady?'
"'I am inclined to think you must have seen her,' he replied; 'she was
with me on the pier at Yarmouth that evening you met me.'
"'Not 'Liza!' I exclaimed.
"'That was she,' he answered; 'Miss Elizabeth Muggins.' He dwelt
lovingly upon the name.
"'But,' I said, 'you seemed--I really could not help noticing, it was so
pronounced--you seemed to positively dislike her. Indeed, I gathered
from your remark to a friend that her society was distinctly distasteful
to you.'
"'To Smith,' he corrected me. 'What judge would that howling little
blackguard be of a woman's worth! The dislike of such a man as that is a
testimonial to her merit!'
"'I may be mistaken,' I said; 'but she struck me as a bit common.'
"'She is not, perhaps, what the world would call a lady,' he admitted;
'but then, my dear Mac, my opinion of the world is not such as to render
_its_ opinion of much value to me. I and the world differ on most
subjects, I am glad to say.
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