Then she really wished him to stop. Was he not behaving like an obtuse creature? Why, everything was planned to encourage him.
He talked recklessly of this and that, and got round to the years long gone by. When the tea came, he was reviving memories of occasions on which he and she had met as young people. Constance laughed merrily, declared she could hardly remember.
'Oh, what a time ago!—But I was quite a child.'
'No—indeed, no! You were a young lady, and a brilliant one.'
The tea seemed to intoxicate him. He noticed again that Constance glanced at him significantly. How good of her to allow him this delicious afternoon!
'Mr. Moxey,' she said, after meditating a little, 'why haven't you married? I should have thought you would have married long ago.'
He was stricken dumb. Her jerky laugh came as a shock upon his hearing.
'Married——?'
'What is there astonishing in the idea?'
'But—I—how can I answer you?'