"Well, why was Marie afraid to ask him, then?"

"I don't know anything about it. I'm at a disadvantage with you, it
seems."

"I'm quite willing to tell you; that's what I'm dining with you for,
isn't it?"

"Is it?" said Rokeby, with a very charming smile which but few women
knew.

She hurried on: "Yes, it is. You see, I didn't want you to come in and
spoil it all, prevent Marie from asking her husband for the
perambulator."

"You were awf'ly thoughtful, and I'm sure I didn't want to chip in at
the wrong moment; but, I say, would it have mattered so much? Because
I'd love to know why; you're interesting me, you know. She could have
asked him another time, couldn't she?"

"You see, she was all ready to-night."

"'All ready'?"

"She put on the frock she was married in; and there was the whipped
cream he's so fond of, with a cherry pie; and it all seemed so
propitious that I thought it would be a pity if you spoilt it."

"You're right. I wouldn't have cut in for the world. But, I say," he
cried gleefully, "what guile! What plotfulness! There's no getting