less true-blue, a William less a gentleman right through to the core might without dishonour have done so. But this was a William of a nobler clay.
"Miss June, your overall isn't dirty."
The rich sincerity of these six and a half little words seemed gravely to imperil the whole sublime edifice of his impersonality.
He was contradicted flatly for his pains; yet she knew in her heart that whether the overall was dirty or whether it was clean, the renegade was already half forgiven.
"What did you think of her dress?" This new on-*rush of irrelevance was despicable, but she seemed quite to have lost control of herself.
"It was perfect. To my mind, nothing is more becoming to a tall lady than a dress of soft dark blue silk."
Dyed-in-the-wool idiot! As though it was not his clear and obvious duty never even to have noticed whether Miss Babraham wore a dress of soft blue silk or a muslin with spots or a grey alpaca, or just a plain serge coat and skirt. Times there are when the stupidity of the human male has really no limit.
"Must have cost a pretty penny," said June acidly.
William shook his head, and boldly affirmed that it couldn't be bought for money.
"That's just nonsense," said June tartly. "There isn't a dress in the world that couldn't be bought for money."
"What I really mean is, to have a dress which looked like that, you would also have to buy the wearer," said William the amazing.
June expressed a ripe scorn by vehemently begin-
