Have you come up to London, wondering, as you must, about what's happening--for Vanderbank mentioned, I think, that you HAVE come up--in pursuit of her ?" "Ah," laughed the subject of Vanderbank's information, "I'm afraid 'pursuit,' with me, is over." "Why, you're at the age," Mitchy returned, "of--the most exquisite form of it.

Observation." "Yet it's a form, I seem to see, that you've not waited for my age to cultivate." This was followed by a decisive headshake.

"I'm not an observer.

I'm a hater." "That only means," Mitchy explained, "that you keep your observation for your likes--which is more admirable than prudent.

But between my fear in the one direction and my desire in the other," he lightly added, "I scarcely know how to present myself.