“O yes, me! I suppose you imagined me during your absence sitting here, à la ‘Judgment Day’, docilely awaiting your return.”
“What do you mean, Rosamund?” asked Sid, anxiously.
“I mean that you seem to forget that I, too, had made previous engagements for Judgment Day. When you were off pilgrimaging in the past—what was to hinder me from doing the same?”
“O Rosamund, you didn’t.”
“Didn’t I! I’d often wondered what it would be like to kiss Jack Meriden again, so your being away on your own affairs gave me a good opportunity.”
“You kissed him!” exclaimed Sid, in angry astonishment, all his masculine proprietorship in his face.
“Why not!” she answered, nodding her head affirmatively.
“You—kissed—him,” Sid repeated, grasping her wrists fiercely.
Rosamund shook herself free, with mocking laughter.
“Ah! there talks the man—the lord of creation. The man is to be allowed to go off and flirt with whom he pleases, but the woman, O no! While the man is engaged in these pleasing diversions, she must sit at home faithfully darning his socks. No, sir! I did kiss Jack Meriden, and it was a very nice kiss, too.”