She shook her head. "No; I think not. I never notice them except when they seem uncomfortable."
"But if you didn't like them you wouldn't care."
"Oh, yes, I should. I don't like to see anything uncomfortable."
Palmerston laughed. "You have made me very uncomfortable, and you do not seem to mind. I must conclude that you have not noticed it, and that conclusion hurts my vanity."
The young woman did not turn her head.
"I try to be candid," she said, "and I am always being misunderstood. I think I must be very stupid."
Her companion began to breathe more freely. She was going to talk of herself, after all. He was perfectly at home when it came to that.
"Not at all," he said graciously; "you only make the rest of us appear stupid. We are at a disadvantage when we get what we do not expect, and none of us expect candor."
"But if we tell the truth ourselves, I don't see why we shouldn't expect it from others."
"Oh, yes, if we ourselves tell the truth."