ave just now?'

"'Oh, Louie!' I began, in mournful and reproachful tones.

"'Oh don't, don't,' she cried, covering her face, 'don't begin; I can't
stand it. If you only knew how absurd you look when you are
sentimental. You are always so funny, you know; and, when you try to be
solemn, it looks so awfully ridiculous! Now, don't--I really cannot
stand it. Please-ple-e-e-e-e-ease don't, like a good Captain Randolph.'

"At this she clasped her hands and looked at me with such a grotesque
expression of mock entreaty, that I knocked under, and burst out
laughing.

"She at once settled herself comfortably in her easy-chair.

"'Now that's what I call,' said she, placidly, 'a nice, good, sensible,
old-fashioned Captain Randolph, that everybody loves, and in whose
affairs all his innumerable friends take a deep interest. And now let
me ask my question again: How many?'

"'How many what?' said I.

"'Oh, you know very well.'

"'How can I know, when you won't say what you mean?'

"'How many entanglements?'

"'Entanglements?'

"'Yes. Engagements, if you wish me to be so very explicit.'

"'What nonsense! Why you know all about it, and the cause--'

"'Ah, now, that is not frank; it isn't friendly or honest,' said the
little witch. 'Come, now. Are there as many as--as--fifty?'

"'Nonsense!'

"'Twenty, then?'

"'How absurd!'

"'Ten?'

"'Of course not.'

"'Five?'

"'No.'

"'Four?'

"'Why, haven't I told you all?'

"'Four,' she persisted.

"'No--'

"'Three, then--'

"'It isn't fair,' said I,' to press a fellow this way.'

"'Three?' she repeated.

"I was silent. I'm not very quick, and was trying, in a dazed way, to
turn it off.

"'Three!' she cried. 'Three! I knew it. Oh, tell me all about it. Oh,
do tell me! Oh, do--please tell me all. Oh, do, ple-e-e-ease tell me.'

"And then she began, and she teased and she coaxed, and coaxed and
teased, until at last--"

Jack hesitated.

"Well," said I.

"Well," said he.

"You didn't really tell her," said I.

"Yes, but I did," said he.

"You didn't--you couldn't."

"I'll be hanged if I didn't!"

"Not about Number Three?"

"Yes, Number Three," said Jack, looking at me with a fixed and slightly
stony stare.

Words were useless, and I sought expression for my feelings in the more
emphatic whistle, which now was largely protracted.

"And how did she take it?" I asked, at length, as soon as I found voice
to speak.

"As usual. Teased me, no en