"No?" she queried politely. "Maybe no one wanted you badly enough. But I wonder if they ever do? Writers say so. I can't believe it somehow. It seems so—well—unnecessary, someway. Carol and I were talking about it this afternoon."
Carol looked up startled.
"What does Carol think about it?" he queried.
"Well, she said she thought in ordinary cases girls were clever enough to get what they wanted without asking for it."
Carol moved restlessly in her chair, her face drooping a little, and Mr. Duke laughed.
"Of course, I know none of our girls would do such a thing," said Connie, serene in her family pride. "But Carol says she must admit she'd like to find some way to make a man say what anybody could see with half an eye he wanted to say anyhow, only—"
Connie stopped abruptly. Mr. Duke had turned to Carol, his keen eyes searching her face, but Carol sank in the big chair and turned her face away from him against the leather cushion.
"Connie," she said, "of course no girl would propose, no girl would want to—I was only joking—"
Mr. Duke laughed openly then. "Let's go and take a walk, shan't we, Carol? It's a grand night."
"You needn't go to get rid of me," said Connie, rising. "I was just going anyhow."