'I asked about Mr. Charteris,' said Wych Hazel, knitting her brows a little. 'And it is you who must live with himnot your father and mother. Could you do it, Josephine? with him alone?'
'One must live with somebody, I suppose,' said Josephine, idly pulling threads of wool from a foot mat near her.
'Well could you live without him?' said her questioner, taking a short cut to her point of view.
'Charteris? He ain't the jolliest man I know.'
'Answer!' said Hazel, knitting her brows again.
'Live without Charteris? I should say I could. From my present point of view. Easy! But it comes back to that awful bore, Hazel; a girl has got to be married. I wish I was a man.'
'Then I would,' said Wych Hazel quietly.
'What?'
'Live without Mr. Charteris. And as you cannot be a man, suppose you talk like a woman.'
'What do you mean?' said Phinney, looking doubtfully at her. 'I haven't come here to be snubbed, I know. Aren't you sorry for me?'