‘Well, it came into my head how funny it would be, if the forty were all gathered into one room, and you were turned loose in the middle of them.’
‘Funny!’ Frank ejaculated. Women have such extraordinary ideas of humour. Maude laughed until she was quite tired.
‘It doesn’t strike you as comic?’ she cried at last.
‘No, it doesn’t,’ he answered coldly.
‘Of course it wouldn’t,’ said she, and went off into another ripple of pretty contralto laughter. There is a soft, deep, rich laugh, which some women have, that is the sweetest sound in Nature.
‘When you have quite finished,’ said he huffily. Her jealousy was much more complimentary than her ridicule.
‘All right now. Don’t be cross. If I didn’t laugh I should cry. I’m so sorry if I have annoyed you.’ He had gone back to his chair, so she paid him a flying visit. ‘Satisfied?’
‘Not quite.’
‘Now?’
‘All right. I forgive you.’