"O-o-oh, I don't believe you," said Adèle. "If it was Leap Year——"
"Pretend it is."
"—and I wanted to dance with you——"
"Pretend you do."
The music stopped with a crash, and a moment later a Frenchman was bowing over my wife's hand.
"May I come for a dance later?" he asked.
"Not this evening. I've promised the next four——"
"There will, I trust, be a fifth?"
"—and, after that, I've given my husband the lot. You do understand, don't you? You see, I must keep in with him. He feeds me and lodges me and clothes me and——"
The Frenchman bowed.