Is  it  not  unusual?  And  is  not  that  what  is  called
facility?"

"  Lord  in  Heaven !  "  he  said ;  "  what  kind  of  a  girl
am  I  dealing  with? — or  what  kind  of  a  girl  is  dealmg
so  unmercifully  with  me?  "

"I— I   didn't   mean "

"  Yes,  3'ou  did.  Those  very  lovely  and  wonderfully
shaped  cj^es  of  yours  are  not  entirely  for  ornament.
Inside  that  pretty  head  there's  an  apparatus  designed
for  thinking;  and  it  isn't  idle."

He  laughed  gaily,  a  trifle  defiantly:

"  You've  said  it.  You've  found  the  fly  in  the  amber.
I'm  cursed  with  facility.  Worse  still  it  gives  me  keen-
est pleasure  to  employ  it.  It  docs  scare  me  occasionally
— has  for  years — makes  me  miseral)le  at  intervals — -
fills  me  full  of  all  kinds  of  fears  and  doubts."

He  turned  toward  her,  standing  on  his  ladder,  the
big  palette  curving  up  over  his  left  shoulder,  a  wet
brush  extended  in  his  right  hand:

"  What  shall  I  do !  "  he  exclaimed  so  earnestly  that
she  sat  up  straight,  startled,  forgetting  her  pose.
