And when I saw you that night on the river, it seemed to me I certainly
must have met you before--have known you always--and now--"
"You had to study my rings and clothing to identify me with myself!"
"But you flatter me when you say that you knew me each time," I
ventured. "I am glad that I have given you no occasion to prove the
truth of your own statement, that I, like other men, am interested only
in the last girl, the nearest girl. You have had no reason--"
"My experience with men," went on this sage young person, "leads me to
believe that they are the stupidest of all created creatures. There was
never once, there is never once, when a girl does not notice a man who
is--well, who is taking notice!"
"Very well, then," I broke out, "I admit it! I did take notice of four
different girls, one after the other--but it was because each of them
was fit to wipe out the image of all the others--and of all the others
in the world."
This was going far. I was a young man. I urge no more excuse. I am
setting down simply the truth, as I have promised.
The girl looked about, gladly, I thought, at the sound of a shuffling
step approaching. "You, Aunt Mandy?" she called out.
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