"Shall I? Why? When?"
"When you yourself have a baby that smiles at you."
"Ugh, how can you say such things!"
She must have misunderstood my meaning, for she was childishly offended. To restore her to good humor I asked at random:
"What sort of food did you get at the party?"
"Don't know," she replied.
"Don't you know?"
"Good lord, no--I wasn't there," she returned in the greatest amazement.
"Well, no, of course not, I only thought--"
"Oh, so that's it. That's what you thought!" she said, still more offended. And she clasped her hands as she had done in the summer, and tore them apart again.