"Come away, quick," I said, and I strode rapidly around the barn. "Do you expect me to keep up with you?" she asked, stopping short and looking so piquant and tempting that I rejoined her instantly. "I'll go as slow as you please. I'll do anything under heaven you bid me." "You treat Mr. Yocomb very shabbily." "You won't make me go after him, will you?" "Why, Mr. Morton? What base ingratitude and after such a dinner, too." "You know how ill-balanced I am." "I fear you are growing worse and worse." "I am, indeed. Left to myself, I should be the most unbalanced man in the world." "Mr. Morton, your mind is clearly unsettled. I detected the truth the first day I saw you." "No, my mind, such as it is, is made up irrevocably and forever. I must tell you that I can't afford to keep a coupe." "There is a beautiful sequence in your remarks. Then you ought not to keep one. But why complain. There are always omnibuses within call." "Are you fond of riding in an omnibus?" "What an irrelevant question! Suppose I followed your example, and ask what you think of the Copernican system?" "You can't be ill-balanced if you try, and your question is not in the least irrelevant. The Copernican system is true, and illustrates my position exactly. There is a heavenly body, radiant with light and beauty, that attracts me irresistibly. The moment I came within her influence my orbit was fixed." "Isn't your orbit a little eccentric?" she asked, with averted face. "Still your figure may be very apt. Another body of greater attraction would carry you off into space." "There is no such body in existence." "Mr. Morton, we were talking about omnibuses." "And you have not answered my question." "Since we are such confidential friends, I will tell you a profound secret. I prefer street cars to omnibuses, and would much rather ride in one than in a carriage that I could not pay for." "Well, now, that's sensible." "Yes, quite matter-of-fact. Where are you going, Mr. Morton?" "Wherever you wish--even to Columbus." "What! run away from your work and duty? Where is your conscience?" "Where my heart is." "Oh, both are in Columbus. I should think it inconvenient to have them so far off." I tried to look in her eyes, but she turned them away. "I can prove that my conscience was in Columbus; I consulted you on every question I discussed in the paper." "Nonsense! you never wrote me a line." "I was enjoined not to in a way that made my blood run cold. But I thought Mrs. Vining's opinions might be influenced by a member of her family, and I never wrote a line unmindful of that influence." Again her laugh rang out. "I should call the place where you wrote the Circumlocution Office. Well, to keep up your way of doing things, that member of the family read most critically all you wrote." "How could you tell my work from that of others?" "Oh, I could tell every line from your hand as if spoken to me." "Well, fair critic?"