suppose they did not think of it."  

"You have an unerring instinct. What else did you do? What did you talk about?"  

"Well, I asked the girl how old she was."  

"UNdoubtedly. Your delicacy is beyond praise. Go on, go on—don't mind my apparent misery—I always look so when I am steeped in a profound and reverent joy. Go on—she told you her age?"  

"Yes, she told me her age, and all about her mother, and her grandmother, and her other relations, and all about herself."  

"Did she volunteer these statistics?"  

"No, not exactly that. I asked the questions and she answered them."  

"This is divine. Go on—it is not possible that you forgot to inquire into her politics?"  

"No, I thought of that. She is a democrat, her husband is a republican, and both of them are Baptists."  

"Her husband? Is that child married?"  

"She is not a child. She is married, and that is her husband who is there with her."  

"Has she any children."  

"Yes—seven and a half."  

"That is impossible."  

"No, she has them. She told me herself."  

"Well, but seven and a HALF? How do you make out the half? Where does the half come in?"  

"There is a child which she had by another husband—not this one but another one—so it is a stepchild, and they do not count in full measure."  

"Another husband? Has she another husband?"  

"Yes, four. This one is number four."  

"I don't believe a word of it. It is impossible, upon its face. Is that boy there her brother?"  

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