part of this most heterodox outburst, for he had begun to think about himself, and try to say a fine thing, suspecting all the while that it might not be true. But Argemone did not remark the stammering: the new thoughts startled and pained her; but there was a daring grace about them. She tried, as women will, to answer him with arguments, and failed, as women will fail. She was accustomed to lay down the law, à la Madame de Staël, to savants and non-savants, and be heard with reverence, as a woman should be. But poor truth-seeking Lancelot did not see what sex had to do with logic; he flew at her as if she had been a very barrister, and hunted her mercilessly up and down through all sorts of charming sophisms, as she begged the question, and shifted her ground, as thoroughly right in her conclusion as she was wrong in her reasoning, till she grew quite confused and pettish.—And then Lancelot suddenly shrank into his shell, claws and all, like an affrighted soldier-crab, hung down his head, and stammered out some incoherencies,—'N-n-not accustomed to talk to women-ladies, I mean. F-forgot myself. Pray forgive me!' And he looked up, and her eyes, half-amused, met his, and she saw that they were filled with tears.
'What have I to forgive?' she said, more gently, wondering on what sort of strange sportsman she had fallen. You treat me like an equal; you will deign to argue with me. But men in general—oh, they hide their contempt for us, if not their own
