'Yes, yes, yes,' and his disordered jabot and touzled hair
echoed the fatal word.

'O Smintheus of the silver bow!' I groaned. 'It is the
woman's part to create delusions, and - destroy them! To
think of it! after all that has passed between us these -
these three weeks, next Monday! "Once and for ever." Did
ever woman use such words before? And I - believed them!'
'Did you speak to the mother?' I asked in a fit of
desperation.

'There was no time for that. Mrs. - was in the carriage, and
I didn't pop [the odious word!] till I was helping her on
with her cloak. The cloak, you see, made it less awkward.
My offer was a sort of OBITER DICTUM - a by-the-way, as it
were.'

'To the carriage, yes. But wasn't she taken by surprise?'

'Not a bit of it. Bless you! they always know. She
pretended not to understand, but that's a way they have.'

'And when you explained?'

'There wasn't time for more. She laughed, and sprang into
the carriage.'

'And that was all?'