"The question is," he repeated, "what will Emma do? Will she be brave, or, rather ordinary enough, to act for herself and him, or will she refuse him because of what she thinks we shall think of them both? As we calmly sit here she may be deciding. That is if you are sure, Harwood, that Crocker was really bound for Emma's when you saw him."
"How could anybody mistake his beaming Emma face?" growled Harwood. "He was marching like a squad of Bersaglieri." "And she knows that Crocker wants it terribly?" added the Sage's wife.
"She does, indeed," sighed Frau Stern repentantly, "for that demon (pointing to Harwood) did tell me and I haf, babylike, told her."
"Here is the case, then," resumed Dennis: "She knows we know Crocker wants her and it, but she doesn't know he doesn't know she has it."
"Precisely, most clearly and gracefully put, my dear," laughed
Mrs. Dennis.
"And she knows, too," he pursued imperturbably, "that we may think he wants her merely for it."
"Bravo!" puffed Harwood smokily from his camp-stool. "She is too clever to expect any weak generosity from any of us. She believes we will think the worst. And won't we? Viva Nietzsche, and perish pity!"
"Shame upon us, then," cried Frau Stern. "She will gif up that fine young man for fear of our talk? Never!"
"She will send him away, dear Frau Stern, the moment he gives her the chance," declared Dennis. "What else can she do? She can never take the chance of our surmises. Behold us, the destroyers! The victims are prepared."
"Can't we do something about it?" Harwood chuckled. "Repent? Be as harmless as doves? Let's write a roundrobin solemnly stating that, to the best of our knowledge and belief, he wants her for herself and not for it."