"I'm going to give up the Post Office," he announces impressively, "and I'm going in for the stage." 

 "If you can make money at it, there's no reason why you shouldn't." 

 Bulpert shows disappointment at the form of this agreement. 

 "I've come to the conclusion," he goes on, "that I'm not acting fairly towards the world in concentrating my abilities on the serving out of stamps and the issuing of postal orders. Besides which, I get no time for study. Evening before last, at the Finsbury Town Hall, I came as near to finding my memory fail as ever I've been. I'm burning the candle at both ends." 

 "Hope you'll have good luck." 

 "I shall deserve to have it," he concedes.  "I sometimes stand at the side of the platform, and I see other parties trying in the same line, and I have to admit to myself that I do put something into my renditions of our poets and humorists that they fail to convey. Furthermore—" 

 "I don't want to miss the Henry the Eighth dances." 

 "Mention of him leads up to what I want to see you about. If I go on the stage—and to tell you the truth, I haven't completely made up my mind as yet—I shall want a certain amount of comfort at home. A professional man can't be bothered about domestic affairs. He has to keep his mind on his work." 

 "Where does Henry the Eighth come in?" 

 Bulpert takes her arm.  "I had an idea of asking you, Gertie, to marry me." 

 A pause of nearly half a minute. 

 "Do you mind if I think it over before giving a definite answer?" 

 "I'm agreeable to that," he says, "providing you don't take too thundering long about it." 

 Thus, a new perplexity was added to those that Gertie Higham already bore upon her shoulders. There existed arguments in favour of accepting Bulpert's offer. He belonged to her own set; he was not in a position to comment upon her manner of speech, and there would be the satisfaction of knowing that she was in all respects his equal; in many his superior. Bulpert was perhaps a trifle pompous, more than a trifle conceited, but he was steady. If she married him, it would be a distinct score to arrange that it occurred ere Henry Douglass and Miss 

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