I have seen a French woman, mother; and that is quite enough for me. If

they are so, what must the men be?"

"There is a name for this process of feminine reasoning, this cumulative

and syncopetic process of the mind, entirely feminine (but regarded by

itself as rational), a name which I used to know well in the days when I

had the ten Fallacies at my fingers' ends, more tenaciously perhaps

than the Decalogue. Strange to say, the name is gone from my memory;

but--but--"

"But then you had better go after it, my dear," his wife suggested with

authority. "If your only impulse when you hear reason is to search after

hard names for it, you are safer outside of its sphere altogether."

"I am struck with the truth of that remark," observed the rector; "and

the more so because I descry a male member of our race approaching, with

a hat--at once the emblem and the crown of sound reason. Away with all

fallacies; it is Church-warden Cheeseman!"

CHAPTER XIV

A HORRIBLE SUGGESTION

"Can you guess what has brought me down here in this hurry?" Lord

Nelson asked Admiral Darling, having jumped like a boy from his yellow

post-chaise, and shaken his old friend's broad right hand with his

slender but strenuous left one, even as a big bell is swung by a thin

rope. "I have no time to spare--not a day, not an hour; but I made up my

mind to see you before I start. I cannot expect to come home alive, and,

except for one reason, I should not wish it."

"Nonsense!" said the Admiral, who was sauntering near his upper gate,

and enjoying the world this fine spring morning; "you are always in

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