"Petersburg—Moscow—Siberia—"
"Oh! The COLD places" She paused, then asked "Going alone?" He knelt on the sofa she was sitting on and whispered almost into her ear:
"Unless someone—goes with me!"
"Naturally," replied Ethel, quite unmoved.
"Will—you—go?" And he waited breathlessly.
She thought a moment, looked at him again, and said quietly: "Chris! I wish I'd been here when you called—instead of that—BRAT."
He turned away up again to the window-seat crying:
"Oh! This is unbearable."
Ethel said quite calmly: "Is it? Your wife all over again, eh?"
He came back to her: "No. I place you far above her, far above all petty suspicions and carping narrownesses. I value you as a woman of understanding."