Then she thought an instant, and the echo of the word "spirit" came back to her mind, and jarred upon it with a little sudden shock.

Even when he had a lovely woman at his side must his fancy be wandering to these unearthly denizens and similes.
"Please, Morris," she said almost sharply, "do not compare me to a spirit.

I am a woman, nothing more, and if it is not enough that I should be a woman, then----" she paused, to add, "I beg your pardon, I know you meant to be nice, but once I had a friend who went in for spirits--table-turning ones I mean--with very bad results, and I detest the name of them." Morris took this rebuff better than might have been expected.
"Would you object if one ventured to call you an angel ?" he asked.
"Not if the word was used in a terrestrial sense.

It excites a vision of possibilities, and the fib is so big that anyone must pardon it." "Very well, then; I call you that." "Thank you, I should be delighted to return the compliment.

Can you think of any celestial definition appropriate to a young gentleman with dark eyes ?" "Oh! Mary, please stop making fun of me," said Morris, with something like a groan.
"Why ?" she asked innocently.