‘How are we to know which is his best?’ Maude asked.
‘I should be inclined to choose something with a title which suggests profundity—“A Pretty Woman,” “Love in a Life,” “Any Wife to any Husband”—’
‘Oh, what did she say to him?’ cried Maude.
‘Well, I was about to say that all these subjects rather suggested frivolity.’
‘Besides, it really is a very absurd title,’ remarked Mrs. Beecher, who was fond of generalising from her six months’ experience of matrimony. ‘A husband to a wife’ would be intelligible, but how can you know what any husband would say to any wife? No one can really foretell what a man will do. They really are such extraordinary creatures.’
But Mrs. Hunt Mortimer had been married for five years, and felt as competent to lay down the law about husbands as about entrées.
‘When you have had a larger experience of them, dear, you will find that there is usually a reason, or at least a primitive instinct of some sort, at the root of their actions. But, seriously, we must really concentrate our attention upon the poet, for my other engagement will call me away at four, which only leaves me ten minutes to reach Maybury.’
Mrs. Beecher and Maude settled down with anxious attention upon their faces.
‘Do please go on!’ they cried.
‘Here is “The Pied Piper of Hamelin.”’