a gesture that somehow reminded him of a cat stretching its forelegs and unsheathing the claws of its silent, padded feet. His feeling of relief was ebbing a little.
' Why not, indeed?' he said.
' Dear Bertie, echo-conversation is so tedious,' she said. ' You always used to be rather given to it. So you have come out to get married. That is settled, then. Do ask me to the wedding. The “ Voice that Breathed ” ; wedding march from “ Lohengrin ” ; ring dropping and running down the aisle like a hoop; orange-flowers; tears; sudden unexplained hysterics of the notorious Mrs. Emsworth; deportment of the bride; wedding-cake; puff-puff. And the curtain drops with extreme rapidity. O lor', Teddy R.! what devils we all are, to be sure!'
Bertie's feeling of relief had quite gone, but his nervousness had gone also. He felt he knew the facts now.
' I see,' he said: ' you propose to make trouble. I'm glad you told me.'
' I told you?' she asked, laughing lazily. ' Little vimmy me? I say, I'm brainy too.'
' What do you propose to do?' he asked.
' Well, wait first of all till you are engaged. I say, Bertie, I like teasing you. When you wrinkle your forehead as you are doing now, you look adorable. I don't mean a word I say, you know, any more than you meant a word of that very, very funny letter you once wrote me, which is now,' she said with histrionic utterance, ' one of my most cherished possessions.'
' You told me you had burned it,' said he.
' I know; I meant to burn it, but I couldn't. When I told you I had burnt it, I really meant to have burnt it, and so I didn't tell you a lie, because for all practical purposes it was burned. But then I found I couldn't; it was too funny for words. Really, there are so few humorous things in the world that it would be murder to destroy it.
