“Have you heard anything of it?” pursued I.
“Oh, in the case of a woman like her,” replied he, “there’s always gossip about this man and that.”
“She ought to marry.”
“She will marry.”
I forced a smile, and, as we knew each other so well, I ventured: “You speak as one having authority.”
“Don’t you know she will?” parried he.
“That sounds like evasion,” laughed I.
“Not at all. She cannot escape. Some man will convince her—surely.”
“But so far as you know, no man has?”
His eyes were frankly mocking. “I did not say that,” said he.