They discussed devices. One servant fewer. No holiday. Cinemas instead
of theatres. No books. No cigarettes. No taxis. No clothes. No meat. No
telephone. No friends. They reached no conclusion. Eve referred to
Adam's great Treasury mind. Adam said that his great Treasury mind
should function on the problem during the day, and further that the
problem must be solved that very night.

"I'll tell you one thing I shall do," said Mrs. Prohack in a decided
tone as Mr. Prohack left the table. "I shall countermand Sissie'a new
frock."

"If you do I shall divorce you," was the reply.

"But why?"

Mr. Prohack answered:

"In 1917 I saw that girl in dirty overalls driving a thundering great
van down Whitehall. Yesterday I met her in her foolish high heels and
her shocking openwork stockings and her negligible dress and her exposed
throat and her fur stole, and she was so delicious and so absurd and so
futile and so sure of her power that--that--well, you aren't going to
countermand any new frock. That chit has the right to ruin me--not
because of anything she's done, but because she _is_. I am ready to
commit peccadilloes, but not crimes. Good morning, my dove."

And at the door, discreetly hiding her Chinese raiment behind the door,
Eve said, as if she had only just thought of it, though she had been
thinking of it for quite a quarter of an hour: