"Frank! I'm always kissing you."
"Not always; sometimes I'm kissing you."
"You'll soon grow tired."
"Shall I? Be careful what you say! you'll be punished if you say it."
"I hope you never will grow tired."
"Sweetheart, you mustn't even say it in jest!"
The rest was that sort of talk which we have most of us talked once; those of us who haven't are to be pitied; it is a kind of talk which is well worth talking. Then Mr. Clifford went on to Bloomsbury Mansions, which was Joseph Oldfield's London address; indeed, so far as his manager knew, it was the proprietor of Peter Piper's Popular Pills' only address. As usual he found the porter in the entrance hall; of him he made inquiry.
"Well, Coles, any news of Mr. Oldfield?"
In the porter's manner, as he replied, there was a significance which Mr. Clifford did not understand.
"I can't say that there's any news of Mr. Oldfield exactly; but there's something going on."