"If you have so many, why can't you add me to the list?"
"You? Oh, that would never do! You would be sure to think I meant it, and the first thing I knew you would try to make me marry you."
"Of course I should. Don't you want to be married?"
"Marriage is an institution for the blind," she laughed back at him.
"Then that's where I want to be confined."
Alice sat up very straight. "Then you had better run right along and find your guardian," she urged. "We business women have no time for such trifles."
"So you shirk your responsibility, do you?" Allen looked at her so reproachfully, and spoke with such quiet firmness that she ceased her bantering.
"What responsibility am I shirking?" she demanded.
"Me; I am the greatest responsibility you have, and you are neglecting me shamefully."
Alice gave evidence of becoming amused again, but he gravely checked her.