"Not with Jo."
Ursula breathed noisy relief. She said cheerfully: "Oh—with the other. Well, I'm glad it's over."
"Over?" said he sardonically. "Over? It's only begun."
"But you'll stick it out, Fred. You've made a fool of yourself long enough. What was the girl playing for? Marriage?"
He nodded. "I guess so." He laughed curtly. "And she almost won."
Ursula smiled with fine mockery. "Almost, but not quite. I know you men. Women do that sort of fool thing. But men—never—at least not the ambitious, snobbish New York men."
"She almost won," he repeated. "At least, I almost did it. If I had stayed a minute longer I'd have done it."
"You like to think you would," mocked Ursula. "But if you had tried to say the words your lungs would have collapsed, your vocal chords snapped and your tongue shriveled."
"I am not so damn sure I shan't do it yet," he burst out fiercely.
"But I am," said Ursula, calm, brisk, practical. "What's she going to do?"