“The idea!” cried Alice, with a cheery laugh. “What!” added she, looking up into his face with great surprise, “surely you are not in earnest!”
“I am.”
“Mr. Frobisher!”
“I am. I said I was going to surprise you.”
Alice wheeled in front of him, and they stood looking into each other’s eyes. “Upon—my—word,” said she, slowly, “I believe you really mean it!”
“I do.”
“Mr. Frobisher! Then, if it be so important to you to know, why don’t you ask him yourself?”
“It is of no earthly importance to me to know; it is of importance to—to—to—him to be asked?”
“You awful sphinx! You will kill me with curiosity! But why not ask him yourself? Why put it on me?”
“Because,” said Charley, smiling,—“simply because it is your question; you want the answer to the riddle, not I!”