I am equally baulked by antagonism and by compliance.

Let him not cease an instant to be himself....

Better be a nettle in the side of your friend than his echo." Malcolm had uttered the last sentence in rather a tragic tone, but he was somewhat offended when the girl laughed.

"What an odd idea!" she observed innocently.

"I should strongly object to anything so stinging as a nettle; perhaps it is because I am a woman that I should prefer the echo;" but Malcolm, who had received a douche of cold water from this feminine criticism, declined to be drawn into a discussion on the subject.
"Women are so illogical," he muttered angrily, and Anna's heaven of content was suddenly clouded.