"You are very mysterious this morning, you two." The widow turned from one to another, her smile still hiding her amusement. "But let me guess. It appears you both wished to send me an invitation, and something has gone amiss with your letters."
"We both sent the same one," explained Cai, and blushed. "That's the long and short of it, ma'am."
"It doesn't seem so very dreadful." Mrs Bosenna's smile was sweetly reassuring. "You both wrote, when it was only necessary for one to write?"
"That's what I kept tellin' him, ma'am," put in 'Bias stoutly. "But he would put his oar in."
"Well, well. . . You both wished to give me pleasure, and each wrote without the other's knowledge—"
"No, we didn't," interrupted 'Bias again.
"Anyway," she harked back with a patient little sigh, "you had both planned your invitation to give me pleasure; and since it was the same—?" She paused on a note of interrogation.
"You might call it the same, ma'am—after a fashion," assented Cai.
She laughed. "Do you know," she said, "I forgot for a moment what friends you are; and it did cross my mind that maybe there were two invitations, and they clashed."
"But they do, ma'am!" groaned Cai.