“Yes; just a liking. He’s just a friend.”
“Exactly. Or in marrying the other whom she loves ex—”
“That’s not it. How can she marry him? He hasn’t—he hasn’t asked her, you see.”
“True; I forgot. Let us assume, though, for the moment, that he has asked her. She would then have to consider which marriage would probably be productive of the greater sum total of—”
“Oh, but you needn’t consider that.”
“But it seems the best logical order. We can afterward make allowance for the element of uncertainty caused by—”
“Oh no; I don’t want it like that. I know perfectly well which she’d do if he-the other man you know-asked her.”
“You apprehend that—”
“Never mind what I ‘apprehend’. Take it as I told you.”
“Very good. A has asked her hand, B has not.”