"I am never sad with longing for what I never heard of," replied Joanna. "Whenever I feel sad, I always know it means that I want to see Mrs. Crozier again."
"Are you still very devoted to Mrs. Crozier?" inquired Alice.
"Of course I am. I'd do anything in the world for her."
"Anything wrong or foolish do you mean?" asked Edgar.
"Certainly not. She'd never want me to do anything wrong or foolish."
"That is not the question," said Edgar, who greatly loved to tease Joanna. "Would you if she did?"
"But she wouldn't. Would you do anything wrong or foolish for any one you cared much for?" inquired Joanna, turning the tables on her adversary.
Edgar thought for a moment. "Anything wrong, no; anything foolish, yes," he answered.
"I was reading a poem the other day," said Alice, "about a lady who threw her glove into the lions' den to test her lover's affection; he jumped into the den and rescued the glove, only to fling it into the lady's face. I cannot make up my mind whether he was right or not."
"Most certainly he was," replied Paul, in his highly superior manner. "To make an exhibition of so sacred a thing as a man's love proved the woman to be vain and frivolous, and incapable of seeing the deeper thing. Therefore the man was better without her than with her, and he did well to throw her over. There is nothing so revolting to a man as frivolity in a woman. When deep calleth unto deep, love reaches perfection; when shallow calleth unto shallow, there is not much harm done; but when deep calleth unto shallow, the tragedies of life begin."