"Ask her?" cried Letitia, aghast. "Not for the world would I do so. How terribly angry with myself I should feel, if she were married, and how horribly angry with her if she were not! Don't you see that it is impossible? It is too awful to contemplate. Perhaps--perhaps--_you_ wouldn't mind asking her." "Letitia!" I exclaimed, shocked. "Oh," Letitia gurgled, in tears. "It is quite too wicked to think about! Why--why--did we have that horrid man up to dinner? Poor Olga! She is a good, kind woman. Yesterday, when I had a splitting headache, she bathed my forehead with _eau de cologne_. Aunt Julia herself couldn't have been kinder. I can't believe--" "But, my girl," I said sympathetically, "if she has a husband, she has surely committed no crime. What Tamworth suggests is--er--pardonable, under those circumstances. We merely want to know. Don't you see--" "Oh, I see," she cried pettishly, "of course I see. Seeing does not help me at all. You want me to catechize the woman because you are afraid to do so. Men are such cowards. Perhaps she will sue me for libel, if I ask her such questions. I shouldn't complain. I deserve to be sued for libel. I feel like suing myself. And--and--you are quite safe, because you can always say that it isn't the thing for you to interfere in such matters." "We really ought to have guessed--" "_You_ really ought to have guessed," she declared unreasonably. "You are six years older than I am. You are a man of the world. Anyway"--triumphantly--"it may not be true. And if I ever find that it isn't, I'll go right down to Mr. Tamworth and tell him what I think of him, in his own office, before all his clerks and typewriters--and yours. He must be a horrible ninny. Really, I wouldn't dare to have such a man around if--if--" There was nothing more to be said. Letitia was in a mood that made argument uncomfortable, and the topic was not refreshing. I felt relieved that we had threshed the matter out, but a trifle uneasy as to future developments. These weeks had been very pleasant--the only unperturbed period we had spent in our home. Could it be that our brief happiness was for ever over? At breakfast, next morning, serenity reasserted itself. We were almost inclined to dismiss all thoughts of the previous evening's discomfiture. It all seemed so groundless. We ate our boiled eggs quite placidly. Miss Allallami brought in the coffee and smiled reassuringly at us. Letitia blushed guiltily as she saw her, and I felt quite unworthy and ashamed. "I do like her face so much," said Letitia quietly, as I looked over the papers. "I don't know when I have liked it so well. Not for the world would I vex her. I am trying, Archie, to put myself in her place." "My dear!"