at first intended? It was such
a safe place; you could get out of it so easily and so quickly. If I
were an oyster--curious how much the word disconcerted me--at least I
was a happy oyster, which was surely better than being miserable and not
an oyster at all. Charlotte was certainly nearer being miserable than
happy. People who are happy do not have the look she had in her eyes,
nor is their expression so uninterruptedly determined. And why should I
be lectured? When I am in the mood for a lecture, my habit is to buy a
ticket and go and listen; and when I have not bought a ticket, it is a
sign that I do not want a lecture. I did not like to explain this
beautifully simple position to Charlotte, yet felt that at all costs I
must nip her eloquence in the bud or she would keep me out till it was
dark; so I got up, cleared my throat, and said in the balmy tone in
which people on platforms begin their orations, '_Geehrte Anwesende_.'

'Are you going to give me a lecture?' she inquired with a surprised
smile.

'In return for yours.'

'My dear soul, may I not talk to you about anything except plants?'

'I really don't know why you should think plants are the only things
that interest me. I have not yet mentioned them. And, as a matter of
fact, you are the last person with whom I would share my vegetable
griefs. But that isn't what I wished to say. I was going to offer you,
_geehrte Anwesende_, a few remarks about husbands.'

Charlotte frowned.

'About husbands,' I repeated blandly, in a voice of milk and honey.
'_Geehrte Anwesende_, in the course of an uneventful existence I have
had much leisure for reflection, and my reflections have led me to the
conclusion, erroneous perhaps, but fixed, that having got a husband,
taken him of one's own free will, taken him sometimes even in the face
of opposition, the least one can do is to stick to him. Now, Charlotte,
where is yours? What have you done with him? Is he here? And if not, why
is he not here, and where is he?'

Charlotte got up hastily and brushed the sand out of the folds of her
dress. 'You haven't changed a bit,' she said with a slight laugh. 'You
are just as----'

'Silly?' I suggested.

'Oh, I didn't say that. And as for Bernhard, he is where he always was,
marching triumphantly along the road to undying fame. But you know that.
You only ask because your ideas of the duties of woman are medieval, and
you are shocked. Well, I'm afraid you must be shocked then.