“What is your standard of ‘goodness’ in a woman, anyway?”
“Well, I’ll admit that my ideal woman would be hard to find. Even the ‘goodness’ part would be largely above par in a plain, ugly woman, let alone in a beautiful one. So I’ll take off a few requirements, and if you can find me a woman who is not a flirt even in the strictest sense of the word, and who never has been accused of trying to make a man love her, and, when she has him in that fix, declare that she only ‘likes him,’ and ‘hopes that they’ll always be friends’; if you can find such a woman, I’ll—but you can’t.”
The subject was dropped, and shortly after Andrews left the club. He went home early and to bed, but sleep did not come as it was wont to. All night long he tossed thinking of what Harris had said, and wondering where he could find a woman who could come up to the requirements.
II.
It was a very preoccupied Andrews which entered the office of “Roberts and Andrews” the next morning, and more than once his partner asked, “What is the matter with you?”
“Nothing much,” was the invariable response.
Toward afternoon, Mr. Roberts came to him and said, “Andrews, my niece is coming here to visit us for a while. Can you suggest anything which would be nice for a young lady of twenty or twenty-one to do?”
“How’s yachting?”
“The very thing. Funny that we did not think about that. Diana is very fond of it, she writes. You have a yacht, haven’t you?”
“Yes.”