"Of the ripe years of twenty-three," put in Case. "The average age would be about right. She has led out one or two of each crop of law students since she was sixteen."
"What has been the trouble?" asked Kennedy.
"I don't know. They came, and went—
'Their hold was frail, their stay was brief,
Restless, and quick to pass away'—
while she remains," replied Case. "Bart seems to be a new inspiration, and she is as gay and lively as a spring butterfly."
"And worth forty young flirts," observed Ransom.
"Oh, come, boys!" cried Bart, "hold up. Miss Giddings is an attractive woman, full of accomplishment and goodness—"
"And experience," put in Case.
"Who permits me to enjoy her society sometimes," continued Bart. "The benefit and pleasure are wholly mine, and I can't consent to hear her spoken of so lightly."
"Bart is right, as usual," said Case, gravely; "and I don't know of anything more unmanly than the way we young men habitually talk of women."