"Do you think you will be happy with him?"
"Certainly. We get on capitally together."
"But he's a solitary inventor, and you are fond of society. Isn't it rather the coupling of the quick and the dead."
"What horrid things you say!" she retorted heatedly. "Of course, if I marry Dicky I shall shake him into a more companionable person. He's got plenty of money, and I daresay when he finishes this airship he'll come out of his shell. The only way I can make him talk is by making him jealous, so I am waiting for Mr. Marr to flirt with."
"Then you are really using Mr. Marr as a stalking-horse to secure Dicky?"
"Well, I am, in a way. But if Dicky will go on being so silly, and sitting as mum as an owl, I shall marry the stalking horse."
"No, Mabel, don't do that; marry for love."
"I can't afford to, you silly man. Cannington and I haven't sixpence between us. And what do you know about love?"
"I know all about it," I whispered proudly. "I'm engaged."
"Oh, Cyrus!" Her eyes shone like stars, and she gasped. "Who is she?"