"Alfred!" gasped Zoie. This was really going too far.

"Yes, I repeat it!" shouted Alfred, pounding the table with his fist for

emphasis. "The moment you GOT me, you declared that all children were

horrid little insects, and that someone ought to sprinkle bug-powder on

them."

"Oh!" protested Zoie, shocked less by Alfred's interpretation of her

sentiments, than by the vulgarity with which he expressed them.

"On another occasion," declared Alfred, now carried away by the recital

of his long pent up wrongs, "you told me that all babies should be put

in cages, shipped West, and kept in pens until they got to be of an

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interesting age. 'Interesting age!'" he repeated with a sneer, "meaning

old enough to take YOU out to luncheon, I suppose."

"I never said any such thing," objected Zoie.

"Well, that was the idea," insisted Alfred. "I haven't your glib way of

expressing myself."

"You manage to express yourself very well," retorted Zoie. "When

you have anything DISAGREEABLE to say. As for babies," she continued

tentatively, "I think they are all very well in their PLACE, but they

were NEVER meant for an APARTMENT."

"I offered you a house in the country," shouted Alfred.

"The country!" echoed Zoie. "How could I live in the country, with

people being murdered in their beds every night? Read the papers."

"Always an excuse," sighed Alfred resignedly. "There always HAS been

and there always would be if I'd stay to listen. Well, for once," he

declared, "I'm glad that we have no children. If we had, I might feel

some obligation to keep up this farce of a marriage. As it is," he

continued, "YOU are free and I am free." And with a courtly wave of

his arm, he dismissed Zoie and the entire subject, and again he started

in pursuit of Mary and his hat.

"If it's your freedom you wish," pouted Zoie with an abused air, "you

might have said so in the first place."

Alfred stopped in sheer amazement at the cleverness with which the

little minx turned his every statement against him.

"It's not very manly of you," she continued, "to abuse me just because

you've found someone whom you like better."

"That's not true," protested Alfred hotly, "and you know it's not true."

Little did he suspect the trap into which she was leading him.




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