She turned and looked at him doubtingly, as she said with hesitation,
"You then regard your—your—"
"My vacation experience," he supplied.
Her eyes widened in what resembled indignant surprise, and her tones grew a little cold and constrained as she again repeated his words.
"You then regard your experience as a vacation episode."
"Do not for a moment think I have been insincere," he said, with strong emphasis, "or that I should not have esteemed it the chief honor of my life had I been successful—"
"As to that," she interrupted, "there are so many other honors that a man can win."
"Assuredly. Pardon me, Miss St. John, but I am sure you have had to inflict similar disappointments before. Did not the men survive?"
The girl broke out into a laugh in which there was a trace of bitterness. "Survive!" she cried. "Indeed they did. One is already married, and another I happen to know is engaged. I'm sure I'm glad, however. Your logic is plain and forcible, Mr. Graham, and you relieve my mind greatly. Men must be different from women."
"Undoubtedly."
"What did you mean by asking me, 'Could you soon feel differently?'"