"Really and truly, I do assure you--look here, honestly--I only thought you were taking a culinary interest. After all, you do learn cooking and such in the daytime."
"Oh, so you just make conversation with me; you adapt your speech to suit my narrow outlook!"
A pause.
"Anyhow, perhaps you're right up to a point; I might have asked about the food, only I forgot."
She seemed very irritable that evening. Would it interest her to talk about Flaten? A little apprehensively, I ventured:
"But you haven't told me whom Flaten is going to marry."
"She's not pretty at all," she replied suddenly. "What do you want to know for? You don't know her."
"I suppose Flaten will be entering his father's firm now?" I persisted.
"Oh, damn Flaten! You seem to care about him a lot more than I do! Flaten, Flaten, Flaten--how should I know if he's going to enter his father's firm!"
"I only thought once he's married--"