“That sometimes go to protest. It is a kind of duet, too, a duet in which it is not so important that the quality of the voices shall be the same as that they shall agree, first, to sing the same tune, and second, to sing it in the same key.”
“Yes,” she said, “I can see that the key is very important, even if he had to hum or whistle. Which reminds me that Bert can scarcely tell one tune from another. It was General Grant, wasn’t it, who only recognized two tunes?—one was ‘Yankee Doodle’ and the other wasn’t. But Bert likes music—my music.”
“I believe you—I believe him. And that will always be a great help when it comes to managing him.”
“Yes, Bert will need considerable managing,—what you might call minor managing. I don’t pretend that he is free from that necessity.”
“He will just need managing enough to keep you pleasantly occupied. It is not good for man to be unmanaged. Let none that wait on thee be ashamed.”
“Are you quite sure you are not agreeing with me about everything just to be nice?”
“Quite sure. Though it is true that no one should or could quarrel with a bride.”
“Except the bridegroom. You would be surprised to know how many bridal-tour quarrels I have heard of.”
“Who tells?”
“The participants—long afterward; and not always so long afterward either. I have a friend who told me when she came home from her tour. And guess what it was about?”