"Shall we swell the number?"

"Not unless you wish it."

"I don't. I wish something else very much. Will you answer as meekly and civilly when I ask it?"

They had begun again their walk eastward.

"I don't know."

"Oh, that is not encouraging."

"It is wise, though. I was brought up never to be afraid to confess that I didn't know a thing."

"I want you to go with me in a gondola. Compare my humility with Robert Page's sang-froid."

"A gondola will be even more difficult to catch by this time than a horse-car," suggested the girl.

Jack looked at her, but her piquant smiling face taught him renewed patience.