“Matthew is ruled out.”
Matthew turned to call to them. “Who is taking my name in vain?”
Fliss crossed the room negligently. “We were discussing,” she told him with her engaging impudence, “the possibility of your marrying me.”
“Am I going to do it?”
“No. Rest easy. I’ve refused you in advance.”
“Because you haven’t enough jazz,” contributed Dick.
“Reason enough. But I wonder why I haven’t more of that peculiar quality. Of course it’s always existed under a variety of names so I can’t say I didn’t happen along in the right generation. I never did have it. Perhaps because I had to go to work too young.”
“Well, I should have gone to work young, and I always had it,” said Fliss.
Cecily was following them amusedly. “And I never had to work at all and I haven’t it.”
“Convent training.”