“And why shouldn’t I? Being merely the fish you suggest, it seems to me that that’s the one time in a human being’s life when, more than another, deliberation is in order. The wider the creek the longer the wise man will linger on the margin to estimate the temperature of the current in event of failure to reach the opposite bank. Inadvertently, Armstrong, you pass me a compliment. Merely as an observer, marriage looks to me like the longest leap a sane man will ever attempt.”
“I expected you’d say that,” shortly,—“predicted it.”
“You give me credit for being consistent, then, at least.”
“Yes, you’re consistent all right.”
“Thanks. That’s the first kind word I’ve heard in a long time.”
“Don’t thank me,” he excepted. “I’m not at all sure I meant the admission to be complimentary; in fact I hardly think I did. I was hoping for once I’d find you napping, without your measuring stick. In other words—find you—human.”
“And now you’re convinced the case is hopeless?”
“Convinced, yes, if I thought you were serious.”
Roberts laughed, a big-chested, tolerant laugh.