"For her sake you cannot. I assure you I should turn her out of my house to-night!"
"But will you treat her kindly if I agree?"
"Isn't that rather a curious question from you to me? You must see that it depends entirely on her. Do you agree to my proposal?"
"God help me, I have no alternative!"
There was a long pause, during which Guinevere's music came faintly from the drawing-room.
"Very well; in that case, we had better decide at once. What is my wife playing?"
"An Andante and Scherzo of Beethoven's."
"Do you know it?"
"Thoroughly."
"Then you have that much in your favour. See, here, it is just three and a half minutes to nine by that clock. If she stops before the first stroke of the hour, I win, and she stays with me, and vice versâ. Do you agree?"