"Then what on earth's all the row about? It's only natural mother should want you to be married some day."
"But—but I've sworn never to marry."
"Ah," said Awdrey knowingly, as she tramped upstairs beside her sister; then in a gentler voice, "Why can't you marry him?"
"Who's 'him'?"
"Why, the man who made you swear not to marry."
"It wasn't a man—it was a g-girl," and Tony's tears burst out afresh, as she remembered how she and Gladys Gates had sworn to each other never to marry, but always to live together, and had solemnly divided and eaten a lump of sugar in ratification of the covenant.
Awdrey was speechless with disgust, but she went with Tony into her room, because she had not yet found out what she primarily wanted to know.
"You're an extraordinary kid, Tony—I really should call you only half there. You kick up all this ridiculous fuss at the mere mention of marriage, and yet you go about with a man like Furlonger. Oh yes, I know all about it. Father was bawling loud enough for every one this side of the Channel to hear."
"But I tell you I didn't know he was Furlonger. Besides, he didn't want me to marry him. He wouldn't dream of suggesting such a thing."
"Oh, no, I'm quite sure of that. But you don't tell me your relations with him were entirely platonic."