She smiled and he smiled too.
“She must have enjoyed it,” she said thoughtfully.
“Enjoyed it!” said Jack. “She won’t like Paradise in comparison.”
“And you’ve been a good boy,” said Mrs. Rosscott, regarding him merrily. “You’ve played your part well.”
He rose to his feet and put his hand to his temple.
“I salute my general,” he said. “I was well trained in the maneuver.”
“It’s odd,” said Mrs. Rosscott thoughtfully. “It was really so simple. We are only women after all, whether it is I—or Aunt Mary—or all the rest of the world. We do so crave the knowledge that someone cares for us—for our hours—for our pleasures. It isn’t the bonbons—it’s that someone troubled to buy the bonbons because he thought that they would please us.”
“Doesn’t a man have the same feeling?” Jack asked. “It isn’t the tea we come for—it’s the knowledge that someone bothers to make it and sugar it and cream it.”
“I wasn’t laughing,” said she.
“I wasn’t laughing either,” said he.