She started up impatiently, and came over to the side of his arm-chair.
"Don't begin to be sarcastic. I never can think of the word I want, when you get sarcastic. I am not beyond anything, and I am certainly not above asking you a favour. Now, if you were to stop being superior for a few minutes—"
"And if you were to stop standing on one leg, and swinging the other about in that juvenile manner, a catastrophe might be—"
She seized a cushion and tried to smother him with it; but he was too quick for her, and the cushion went spinning to the other end of the room, and she found herself pulled on to his knee.
"You dreadful child! It is too hot, and I am too old for romping in this fashion," he observed lazily.
"Are you coming?" she asked abruptly. She was playing with his watch chain, and he did not quite know what to make of her face.
"Do you want me to?" he asked gently.
"Of course I do," she said, in a swift little whisper; and her fingers strayed up to his scarf pin, and touched his beard.
"I am being dreadfully improper," she said.
"You are being very nice," he replied, and weakly kissed her fingers. She did not move, and he gave her a little shake.