“For instance,” he went on, “suppose we are to take part in amateur theatricals,—suppose, for example, we are assigned the principal part. We rehearse and do finely, and are about to make the hit of our lives. Then it occurs to us suddenly that one of our friends—or relatives—say a cousin—never has had the same chance that we have had, and we decide to give her additional prominence and obscure ourselves a little, all in her interest; and we go ahead and do it, even though it is a shock to a whole lot of people. And I suppose you thought all the time that nobody guessed what you were doing. So sometimes it may please a woman,—she may be the noblest and fairest of women,—to play a part—and you—?”
“I’m sure I don’t know what you are talking about, Mr. Leighton,” she answered. “I have looked upon you as a friend, and after you had been moved by the moonlight to say things that were not—wholly friendly and that were distasteful to me, I should think that in ordinary decency you would not refer to the matter again.”
“I’m sorry to offend, but if you thought it was the moonlight—”
“I don’t care what it was!”
“If you don’t care what it was,—sun, moon or stars, then you make my task all the greater. I think you don’t quite understand about me. You recommended that I get the moose—”
“Please forgive all that,” she begged in real contrition. “You have no right to quote me against myself. You imply that I was—”
“Flirting? Nothing of the kind. You suggested last winter that I was immensely conceited and you intimated in the friendliest possible way that there were fields I hadn’t conquered. It was wholesome and stimulating and I thanked you in my heart for taking the trouble to tell me.”
“Well, you didn’t get the moose, did you?” and she laughed.
“No; but I won a case in the Supreme Court,” he declared in a droll tone, at which both laughed; and she felt easier.
“I can’t accept the substitute,” she said. “A moose is a moose; and the Supreme Court doesn’t sound very amusing to me. If you had really been interested I should have had the moose-head long ago. But you are not chivalrous. You have lost an opportunity. I wasn’t worth the trouble. And now I believe I am tired of this. Let us change the subject.”