"You know how strong first impressions are," resumed Van Berg
hastily, "and the thought has passed through my mind that you might
be so preoccupied in wishing good things for others as to quite
forget yourself."

"If one could be completely occupied in that way," she said, with
a faint smile which suggested rather than revealed a vista of her
past experience, "one might have little occasion to wish for anything
for self. But, Mr. Van Berg, only we poor unreasoning women put
much faith in first impressions; and you know how often they mislead
even us, who are supposed to have safe instincts."

"Do they often mislead you?"

"Indeed, sir," she replied, with a merry twinkle in her eye, "I
think you must have learned the questions in the catechism, if not
the answers."

Van Berg bit his lip. Here was a suggestion of a thorn in the
sweetbrier he believed he had discovered.

"Now see how far I am astray," she resumed with a frankness which
had in it no trace of familiarity. "It is my impression you are
a lawyer."

At this Van Berg laughed outright and said: "You are indeed
mistaken. I have no connection with the influential class whose
business it is to make and evade the laws. I am only one among
the humble masses who aim to obey them. But perhaps you think your