"I'm not a competent witness," I answered. "I'll be
frank with you: I don't like him; I don't believe in
him."
"Oh! I beg your pardon. I didn't know, of course."
"The subject is not painful to me," I hastened to
add, "though he was always rather thrust before me as
an ideal back in my youth, and you know how fatal that
is. And then the gods of success have opened all the
gates for him."
"Yes,-and yet-"
"And yet-" I repeated. Stoddard lifted a glass of
sherry to the light and studied it for a moment. He did
not drink wine, but was not, I found, afraid to look
at it.
"And yet," he said, putting down the glass and speaking
slowly, "when the gates of good fortune open too
readily and smoothly, they may close sometimes rather
too quickly and snap a man's coat-tails. Please don't
think I'm going to afflict you with shavings of wisdom
from the shop-floor, but life wasn't intended to be too
easy. The spirit of man needs arresting and chastening.
It doesn't flourish under too much fostering or
too much of what we call good luck. I'm disposed to
be afraid of good luck."
"I've never tried it," I said laughingly.
"I am not looking for it," and he spoke soberly.
I could not talk of Pickering with Bates-the masked
beggar!-in the room, so I changed the subject.
"I suppose you impose penances, prescribe discipline
for the girls at St. Agatha's,-an agreeable exercise of
the priestly office, I should say!"
His laugh was pleasant and rang true. I was liking
him better the more I saw of him.
"Bless you, no! I am not venerable enough. The
Sisters attend to all that,-and a fine company of
women they are!"
"But there must be obstinate cases. One of the
young ladies confided to me-I tell you this in cloistral
confidence-that she was being deported for insubordination."
"Ah, that must be Olivia! Well, her case is different.
She is not one girl,-she is many kinds of a girl
in one. I fear Sister Theresa lost her patience and
hardened her heart."
"I should like to intercede for Miss Armstrong," I
declared.
The surprise showed in his face, and I added: "Pray don't misunderstand me. We met under
rather curious circumstances, Miss Armstrong and I."
"She is usually met under rather unconventional circumstances,
I believe," he remarked dryly. "My introduction
to her came through the kitten she smuggled
into the alms box of the chapel. It took me two days
to find it."
He smiled ruefully at the recollection.
"She's a young woman of spirit," I declared defensively.
"She simply must find an outlet for the joy of
youth,-paddling a canoe, chasing rabbits through the
snow, placing kittens in durance vile. But she's demure
enough when she pleases,-and a satisfaction to
the eye."