"Is it? How odd! I should think anybody who cared about dancing and acting, and all that sort of thing, would be bound to have a lovely time in Simla."
She looked him so simply and straightly in the face that he felt unaccountably ashamed of his questionable remark, and the laugh that had preceded it—a sensation to which he was little accustomed.
"Yes, yes; daresay you're right," he agreed airily. "But if you're so keen about the place, why not insist upon going? Wives don't trouble overmuch about obedience nowadays; most of them seem to do whatever they please."
"Do they? Well, then, I suppose it pleases me to go where my husband likes best."
"Very dutiful, indeed!" A shadow of a sneer lurked beneath his bantering tone, and she reddened again.
"It's not dutiful at all. It's simply because——" She broke off short. "Oh, I think you're horrid this afternoon. I expect people to make themselves pleasant when I let them come out with me."
"Well, I'm sure I do my best. But one can never tell where to have you. Goodness knows I've shown you plainly that I'm ready to be your friend—to any extent; and you've seemed to accept it readily enough——"
"Well, of course. I like men to like me. I always did——"
"Men?"