'I wanted to point out to you that it is not civil pointedly to ignore a
man who is sitting next to you at luncheon.'

'Did I do that? I'm so sorry. But I know you're greedy, and I thought
you'd be absorbed in the lobster mayonnaise.'

'I'm beginning to think I dislike you rather than otherwise,' he
murmured reflectively.

'Ah, I suppose that is why you haven't been in to see me for so long.'

'May I venture to remind you that I've called upon you three times
during the last week.'

'I've been out so much lately,' she answered, with a little wave of her
hand.

'Nonsense. Once I heard you playing scales in the drawing-room, and once
I positively saw you peeping at me through the curtains.'

'Why didn't you make a face at me?' she asked.

'You're not going to trouble to deny it?'

'It's perfectly true.'

Dick could not help giving a little laugh. He didn't quite know whether
he wanted to kiss Julia Crowley or to shake her.

'And may I ask why you've treated me in this abominable fashion?' he
asked blandly.

She looked at him sideways from beneath her long eyelashes. Dick was a
man who appreciated the artifices of civilisation in the fair sex, and
he was pleased with her pretty hat and with the flounces of her muslin
frock.

'Because I chose,' she smiled.

He shrugged his shoulders and put on an air of resignation.

'Of course if you're going to make yourself systematically disagreeable
unless I marry you, I suppose I must bow to the inevitable.'

'I don't know if you have the least idea what you're talking about,' she
answered, raising her eyebrows. 'I'm sure I haven't.'

'I was merely asking you in a rather well-turned phrase to name the day.
The lamb shall be ready for the slaughter.'

'Is that a proposal of marriage?' she asked gaily.

'If not it must be its twin brother,' he returned.

'I'm so glad you've told me, because if I'd met it in the street I
should never have recognised it, and I should simply have cut it dead.'

'You show as little inclination to answer a question as a cabinet
minister in the House of Commons.'

'Couldn't you infuse a little romance into it? You see, I'm American,
and I have a certain taste for sentiment in affairs of the heart.'

'I should be charmed, only you must remember that I have no experience
in these matters.'

'That is visible to the naked eye,' she retorted. 'But I would suggest
that it is only decent to go down on your bended knees.'

'That so