--Carmen de
Haro."
"Carmen de Haro!" I grieve to state that such was the preoccupation of
this man, elected by fate to be the hero of the solitary amatory episode
of his story, that for a moment he could not recall her. When the honest
little figure that had so manfully stood up against him, and had proved
her sex by afterwards running away from him, came back at last to his
memory, he was at first mystified and then self-reproachful. He had
been, he felt vaguely, untrue to himself. He had been remiss to the
self-confessed daughter of his enemy. Yet why should she telegraph to
him, and what was she doing in Washington? To all these speculations
it is to be said to his credit that he looked for no sentimental
or romantic answer. Royal Thatcher was naturally modest and
self-depreciating in his relations to the other sex, as indeed most men
who are apt to be successful with women generally are, despite a vast
degree of superannuated bosh to the contrary. To the half dozen women
who are startled by sheer audacity into submission there are scores who
are piqued by a self-respectful patience; and where a women has to do
half the wooing, she generally makes a pretty sure thing of it.
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