r thought I should see you
again. Let's come to realities. I suppose the real heart-felt
question at the back of your mind is: _can_ I let you have a room? I
can, but not a bath-room suite; they're all taken..."

_Michael_: "Nonsense! I'm going to be put up at the Palace Hotel.
Jenkins--you remember the butler of old time?--Jenkins, and my
batman, a refined brigand, a polished robber, have already been
there and commandeered something....

"No. I came here, firstly to find out if you were living; secondly
to ask you to marry me" ... (a pause) ... "and thirdly to find out
what happened to Bertie Adams. A message came through the Spanish
Legation here, a year and a half ago, to the effect that he had died
at Brussels from the consequences of the War. However, unless you
can tell me at once this is all a mistake, we can go into his
affairs later. My first question is--Oh! Bother all this cackle....
_Will_ you marry me?"

_Vivie_: "Dear, brave Bertie, whom I shall everlastingly mourn, was
shot here in Brussels by the abominable Germans, as a spy, on April
8th, 1917. He was of course no more a spy than you are or I am. The
poor devoted fool--I rage still, because I shall never be worth such
folly, such selfless devotion--got into Belgium with false
passports--American: in the hope of rescuing me. He came and
enquired here--my last address in his remembrance--and came by sheer
bad luck just as the Kaiser was about to arrive. They jumped to the
conclusion that--"

_Rossiter_: "_Awfully, cruelly_ sad. But you can give me the details
of it later on. You must have a long, long story of your own to tell
which ought to be of poignant interest. But ... will you marry me? I
suppose you know dear Linda died--was killed by a bomb in a German
air-raid last year--October, 1917. I really felt _heart-broken_
about it, but I know now I am only doing what she would have wished.
She came at last to talk about you _quite_ differently, _quite_
understanding--"

_Vivie_: "That's what all widowers say. They always declare the dead
wife begged them to marry again, and even designated her successor.
Poor Linda! Yes, I read an account of it in a copy of the _Times_;
but I couldn't of course communicate with you to say how _truly,
truly_ sorry I was. I am glad to know she spoke nicely of me. Did
she really? Or have you only made it up?"

_Michael_: "_Of course_ I haven't. She really did. Do you know, she
and I quite altered after the War beg