"Perhaps," suggested his wife, "he asked that so as to leave himself some hope if he should happen to meet her again."
"And we don't wish him to have any hope."
Mrs. Elmore was silent.
"Celia," cried her husband indignantly, "I can't have you playing fast and loose with me in this matter!"
"I suppose I may have time to think?" she retorted.
"Yes, if you will tell me what you do think; but that I must know. It's a thing too vital in its consequences for me to act without your full concurrence. I won't take another step in it till I know just how far you have gone with me. If I may judge of what this man's influence upon Lily would be by the fact that he has brought us to the verge of the only real quarrel we've ever had"—
"Who's quarrelling, Owen?" asked Mrs. Elmore meekly. "I'm not."
"Well, well! we won't dispute about that. I want to know whether you thought with me that it was improper for him to address her in the car?"
"Yes."
"And still more improper for him to join you in the street?"