"Mr. Dale!"
"Yes!"
"You may, if you like, go on with the first story."
"There is only one. It was in the Mile-End road I met the admirer—Julian Fairholm."
"Oh!" Lady Tamworth sat up and blushed. However, Lady Tamworth blushed very readily.
"It was a queer incident," Mr. Dale continued. "I caught sight of a necktie in a little dusty shop-window near the Pavilion Theatre. I had never seen anything like it in my life; it fairly fascinated me, seemed to dare me to buy it."
The lady's foot began to tap upon the carpet. Mr. Dale stopped and leaned critically forward.
"Well! Why don't you go on?" she asked impatiently.
"It's pretty," he reflected aloud.
The foot disappeared demurely into the seclusion of petticoats. "You exasperate me," she remarked. But her face hardly guaranteed her words. "We were speaking of ties."