help asking this, you know; where were the bachelors of Lindum?"

She smiled, still in her friendly, unembarrassed way.

"I know what you mean, of course. The older men say it quite openly in
England.--'Why don't a nice gel like you get married?'--It's rather a
long story." ("Has she been in love?" Stefan wondered.) "First of all,
there are very few young men of one's own sort in Lindum; most of them
are in the Colonies. Those there are--one or two lawyers, doctors, and
squires' sons--are frightfully sought after." She made a wry face. "Too
much competition for them, altogether, and--" she seemed to take a plunge
before adding--"I've never been successful at bargain counters."

He turned that over for a moment. "I see," he said. "At least I should
do, if it weren't for it being you. Look here, Miss Elliston, honestly
now, fair and square--" he smiled confidingly at her--"you're not asking
me to believe that the competition in your ease didn't appear in the
other sex?"

"Mr. Byrd," she answered straightly, "in my world girls have to have more
than a good appearance." She shrugged her shoulders rather disdainfully.
"I had no money, and I had opinions."

("She's been in love--slightly," he decided.) "Opinions," he echoed,
"what kind? Mustn't one have any in Lindum?"

"Young girls mustn't--only those they are taught," she replied. "I read a
good deal, I sympathized with the Liberals. I was even--" her voice
dropped to mock horror--"a Suffragist!"