"I am obliged to be careful while driving."

"Is it necessary that you should sit there as dumb as a fence post?"

No reply.

"Well, I must say that your sulkiness is not to be envied. Suppose some
one should see us--I mean you--why they would readily believe that your
wife was an old woman."

"Now, now, my dear Ulrique Eugenie, don't--"

"Your dear Ulrique Eugenie is not yet thirty eight years old, and even
though you are two years younger, I do not think that should make any
difference."

"On the contrary, on the contrary," grumbled her husband, chuckling
inwardly.

"I do not know but what your words have a double meaning; but Fabian,
_we_ must not quarrel, let us become reconciled, there is my hand."

"Your heart ever overflows with the milk of human kindness, my dear,"
said he.

"Thank you, my dear husband,--but can you imagine what I really intended
to say?"

"Indeed I cannot."