Part 40 (1/2)

”You did that admirably, but it hasn't deceived me,” said Paul serenely. ”You know as well as I do that it is futile to go on any longer like this. We have tried it for a year, and I for one don't think very much of it. Your experiences have doubtless been happier than mine; but if you mean to tell me that they have taught you to prefer solitude to companions.h.i.+p, then you are as thorough a prig as you came over here to become. And that I don't believe for a moment, for at your worst you were always inconsistent, and inconsistency is the saving grace of the prig.”

”I appreciate the honour of your approval,” replied Katharine with exaggerated solemnity; ”but, for all that, I still think that living with unsophistication in short petticoats is likely to be less tiring, on the whole, than living with some one for whom nothing in heaven or earth has yet been brought to perfection.”

She ended with a peal of laughter. Paul strolled on at the same measured pace as before.

”Besides,” she added, ”I thought we had both done with the matter a year ago. What is the use of dragging it up again?”

”I thought,” added Paul, ”that we had also done with taking ourselves seriously, a year ago. But you seem to wish the process to be renewed.

Very well, then; let us begin at the beginning. The initial difficulty, if I remember rightly, was the fact that we were very much in love with each other.”

”I know _I_ wasn't,” said Katharine hotly. ”I never hated any one so much in my life, and--”

”Which gets over the initial difficulty, does it not? Secondly then, you determined in the most unselfish manner possible that a wife would inevitably cripple what you were kind enough to call my career. I need hardly say how touched I felt by your charming consideration, but I should like to point out--”

”It is perfectly detestable of you to have come all this way on purpose to laugh at me,” cried Katharine.

”I should like to point out,” repeated Paul, ”that I feel quite capable of pursuing my career without any suggestions from my wife at all, and that, engrossing as her presence would undoubtedly prove--”

”It seems to me,” interrupted Katharine, ”that you don't want a wife at all; you only want an audience.”

”I don't think,” said Paul, smiling indulgently, ”that we need quarrel about terms, need we? Well, as I was saying, my career would probably continue to take care of itself, even if there were two of us to be asked out to dinner, instead of one. And that disposes of the second obstacle, doesn't it? The third and last--”

”Last? There are millions of others!”

”The third and last,” resumed Paul, ”was, I think, the trifling fact that I had once presumed to call you a prig, in consequence of which you chose to pretend you were afraid of me. Wasn't that so?”

”Afraid of you? What a ridiculous idea!” she exclaimed. ”Why, I was never afraid of you in my life!”

”Which disposes of the third and last difficulty,” said Paul promptly.

Katharine stamped her foot and walked on in front of him.

”You don't seem to think,” she said, ”that I might not _want_ to marry you.”

”Oh, no,” said Paul; ”I don't.”

She said no more, but continued to walk a little way in front of him so that he could not see her face. She only spoke once again on their way down to the boat.

”How was Ted looking when you saw him?” she asked abruptly. ”Perhaps you didn't notice, though?”

”Oh, yes,” said Paul, blandly. ”I've never seen him looking better; he seemed to have had a splendid time out there. He asked after you, by the way, and seemed rather surprised that I hadn't heard from you.”

She made no comment, and they reached the boat in silence.

”You will come back to tea with me?” she said, as they stood waiting for it to start.

”With you,--or with unsophistication?”

”Oh, with me of course! Don't you think you have been funny enough for one afternoon?”