“Why? Because I am a little Curiosity, and like to know everything.”
“That is both presumptuous and impossible, your ladyship! If one-half the world were always bent on knowing all the secrets of the other half, what a very uncomfortable world it would be!”
“I do not see that, even if the first half included the wives, and the second the husbands; which is apparently what you mean to imply.”
“I shall not plead guilty to anything by implication.”
They went on a few moments longer in this skirmish of assumed gaiety, when Agatha, pausing, leant her elbows on the table, and looked seriously at her husband,
“Do you know we are two very foolish people?”
“Wherefore?”
“We are pretending to make idle jests, when all the time we are both of us very much in earnest.”
“That is true!” And he sighed, though within himself, as though he did not wish her to hear it. “Agatha, come over to me.” He held out both his hands; she came, and placed herself beside him, all her jesting subdued. She even trembled, at the expectation of something painful or sorrowful to be told. But her husband said nothing—except to ask if she would like to go anywhere this evening.
Agatha felt annoyed. “Why do you put me off in this manner, when I know you have something on your mind?”