Nay! that they are not compact of clay at all, but of some faultless, flawless material which the Almighty keeps for such fine work.

It is only in middle age that men--except scamps, who learn this bad side of knowledge young--realise that women are human beings like themselves.

It may be, you know, that you may have misjudged this young lady! That you have not made sufficient allowance for her youth, her nature, even the circumstances under which she spoke.

You have told me that she was in some deep grief or trouble.

May it not have been that this in itself unnerved her, distorted her views, aroused her passion till all within and around was tinged with the jaundice of her concern, her humiliation--whatever it was that destroyed for the time that normal self which you had known so long.