"I should think you would, indeed. Let me look at it. Upon my word, Nansie, it flatters me." "It does not," said Nansie, energetically. "You are a great deal better-looking than the picture." He laughed. "Now it is you who are flattering; and, of course, you are only joking when you ask me to take the watch and chain back. Don't mention it again, there's a good girl. It gives me an uncomfortable feeling. Every lady has her watch and chain, and I should feel that mean if I saw you without one--well, there! don't let us talk about it. I shall be able to pay the jeweller. You don't know half the things I've got in my bachelor rooms; and just look at this diamond ring he wheedled me into buying for myself. Down in the bill for sixty pounds. To think I have never given you a ring!" "Yes, you have, dear," said Nansie, kissing her wedding-ring. "Of course, that," said Kingsley, taking her hand and kissing it, and keeping it clasped in his; "but I mean diamonds." "I don't want diamonds, dear." "Because you are the sweetest, most unselfish little wife that a fellow was ever blessed with. But confess, Nansie, now, you do like diamonds, don't you? No subterfuges, you know. I am your husband, and you mustn't deceive me. You _do_ like them?" "Yes, Kingsley; all women do, I think." "And lace?" "Yes, and lace." "That's where it is," he said, in a tone of vexation, running his fingers through his hair. "I had my eye on a lovely ring, and such a brooch! I asked the jeweller to put them by for me." "You will not get them now, Kingsley?" said Nansie, anxiously. "No, I can't very well, and that is what vexes me. I look upon them as really yours, and as if I'd behaved meanly in not buying them for you. It is really a loss, for, you see, if I had bought them when I took a fancy to them, you would have had them, and I shouldn't have cause to reproach myself." "Kingsley, dear," said Nansie, holding up a reproving forefinger, "you are, as my dear father used to say, illogical." "Your dear father may have said it to you, my unreasonable darling, because logic is not by any means a feminine quality; but he would never have said it to me, because we men see deeper into things than you. I could prove to you incontestably, Nansie, that it is a positive loss that I did not buy that ring and brooch for you; but I don't want to make your head ache." He kissed her eyes and forehead and lips, as if these marks of affection were as powerful as any logic he could bring to bear upon the point in dispute. "However, what is done is done, and what we have to consider is not yesterday, but tomorrow." "Yes, dear," said Nansie, hailing this more sensible turn, "that is what we have to consider." "And we will consider it, dearest, in a practical, logical manner." Nansie, despite her anxiety, could not help smiling at this. "I am sure I am thinking of it all the night long."