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 ladies are the most independent in the world," she said. "They are always showing us that."

"Some of them," he returned quickly. "But please don't take an ill-mannered provincial for a sample of our American ladies."

"No? It is very puzzling."

"What is?"

"What you have just told me. Because wherever I have gone in America I have been told I must not take any of the people I have noticed as samples. It is very hard to discover America." Then she smiled. "If Mr. Tinker should be going to Africa I do not know what he would get from it, but I would like to see him there."

"You would?" Ogle had thought they were rid of the unpleasant subject, and he was a little nettled by her tendency to revert to it and even dwell upon it. "Why on earth should you?"

"But why should I not?"

He frowned. "Well, frankly, it seems a little grotesque."

"Grotesque?" she said inquiringly; but the word seemed to please her, even to amuse her pleasantly, and she repeated it. "Grotesque. Yes, I think it