"How can you ask me!"
He pursued her with a touch of harshness. "How can I ask you? Aren't you talking about running away from a situation? I don't run away from situations. I call the man or woman that runs away from a situation, a coward. Face it down, work it out--don't dodge it."
MacBirney finished without interruption.
In the living room the telephone bell rang. He went in to answer it and his wife heard him a moment in conversation. Then on the garage wire he called up the chauffeur and ordered a car. Coming out again on the porch he explained: "Lottie wants us to come over."
"Lottie?" There was a shade of resentment, almost of contempt, in Alice's echo and inquiry.
"Lottie Nelson."
"Don't call her Lottie, Walter."
"She calls me Walter."
"She has no business to. What did you tell her? Don't let us go out to-night."
"It is a little celebration of some kind and I told her we would come."