"Of course you didn't."
"Edie," he said, and his face was still hidden, "however did you think of it?"
"Oh, I don't know. I see some things, and then other things come round to me. But you mustn't forget that you've got to begin all over again from the very beginning. You'll have to be very careful with her, every bit as careful as if she were a strange lady you've just met at a dance. Don't forget that she's strange, that she's another woman, in fact."
"I see. If there are to be many of these remarkable transformations of Anne, I shall have all the excitement of polygamy without its drawbacks."
"You will. And it's the same for her, remember. You're a strange man. You've just been introduced, you know—by me—and you're begging for the pleasure of the first waltz, and Anne pretends that her programme is full, and you look over her shoulder and see that it isn't, and that she puts you down for all the nice ones. And you sit out all the rest, and you flirt on the stairs, and take her in to supper, and, finally, you know, you pull yourself together and you do it—in the conservatory. Oh, it'll be so amusing, and so funny to watch. You'll begin by being most awfully polite to each other."
"I suppose I may yet be permitted to call this strange young lady Anne?"
"Yes. That's because you remember that you have known her once before, a very long time ago, when you were children. You are children, both of you. Oh, Walter, I believe you're looking forward to it; I believe you're glad you've got to do it all over again."
"Yes, Edie, I positively believe I am."
He rose, laughing, prepared to begin that minute his new wooing of Anne.
"Good-bye," said Edith, "it is good-bye, you know, and good luck to you."