"Whatever has he gone to Glasgow for?"
"I don't know,—any more than I know why you went out before dinner and came back after dinner."
"Would you like to know why I went out?" Sissie spoke with sudden ingratiatingness.
"No, not at all. But I should like to know why you went out without telling anybody. When people are expected to dinner and fail to appear they usually give notice of the failure."
"But, father, I told Machin."
"I said 'anybody.' Don't you know that the whole theory of the society which you adorn is based on the assumption that Machin is nobody?"
"I was called away in a frightful hurry, and you and mother were gossiping upstairs, and it's as much as one's life is worth to disturb you two when you are together."
"Oh! That's news."
"Besides, I should have had to argue with mother, and you know what she is."
"You flatter me. I don't even know what you are, and you're elementary compared to your mother."