How many more of my speeches did Cunliffe repeat ?' 'Oh, I had heard enough,' I replied hastily.

'Does it not strike you as a little hard, Mr.Hamilton, that one should be judged beforehand in this harsh manner ?--that because some girls are full of vagaries, the whole sex must be condemned ?' 'Oh, if you put it in that cut-and-dried way, I must plead guilty: in fact, I should owe you some sort of apology, only'-- with a stress on the word--'my speech was not intended for the house-top.

I am rather a sceptic about female missions, Miss Garston, and do not always measure my words when I am discussing abstract theories with a friend.

In my opinion Cunliffe is the one you ought to blame, though if the speech rankles I will take my share.' 'I certainly wish you had not said it, Mr.Hamilton.' 'There, now,'-- in an injured voice,--'that is the way you treat my handsome apology, and I am not a man ever to own myself in the wrong, mind you.

What does it matter, may I ask, what I think of girls in the abstract?
I had not met you, Miss Garston, or discussed the subject in its bearings: so where may the offence lie?
Of course you have no answer ready; of course you have taken offence where none is meant.