They came in and looked at us diffidently. I leant back and gazed at the ceiling.
"Were you just going?" said Archie.
"We were not," I said.
"Then we'll stay and talk to you."
"We were in the middle of an important conversation."
"Oh, don't mind us."
"Thank you. It's really for your benefit, so you'd better listen. Let me see, where were we? Oh yes, 'One pound of beef, ninepence; three pounds of potatoes, fourpence; one piece of emery paper for the blanc-mange, tuppence; one pound of india-rubber——'"
"'Dahlia darling,'" interrupted Myra, in a fair imitation of Archie's voice, "'how often have I told you that we can't afford india-rubber in the cake? Just a few raisins and a cherry is really all you want. You mustn't be so extravagant.'"
"'Dearest, I do try; and after all, love, it wasn't I who fell into the cocoa last night.'"
"'I didn't fall in, I simply dropped my pipe in, and it was you insisted on pouring it away afterwards. And then, look at this—One yard, of lace, 4s. 6d. That's for the cutlets, I suppose. For people in our circumstances paper frillings are quite sufficient.'"