"You people here have a pleasant way--!" "Oh we HAVE!"-- Mitchy, taking him up, was gaily emphatic.

He began, however, already to perceive the mystification which in this case was to be his happy effect.
"Mr.Vanderbank," his victim remarked with perhaps a shade more of reserve, "has told me a good deal about you." Then as if, in a finer manner, to keep the talk off themselves: "He knows a great many ladies." "Oh yes, poor chap, he can't help it.

He finds a lady wherever he turns." The stranger took this in, but seemed a little to challenge it.

"Well, that's reassuring, if one sometimes fancies there are fewer." "Fewer than there used to be ?--I see what you mean," said Mitchy.

"But if it has struck you so, that's awfully interesting." He glared and grinned and mused.