"I only ask you to ask yourself whether that isn't an _idée fixe_."
"I really don't think it's an _idée fixe_," Cosimo returned, after further examination of it. "And besides, _you've_ rather spoiled me for the companionship of--of anybody who comes along----"
"It has been beautiful," said Amory, with a detached air, "and it will be more beautiful still to look back on. I don't conceal from you, Cosimo, that quite the most precious and significant part of my life has been shared with you."
He broke out almost angrily--"The past tense again, Amory! Really, I--I don't know what's come over you!"
"You mean that you'd miss me a little too?"
"Miss you!----" This time he did give a little mirthless laugh.
"Then," Amory went on presently, "there's something else to remember. Dorothy's used to me. We are friends. Another girl might not be. You see how much I care who you marry, Cosimo, and why."
"But--but--whatever's put it into your head that I want to marry at all?" Cosimo cried, stopping and looking blankly at her.
She, too, looked at him; then she moved slowly forward again.
"Ah, you're at the very heart of the feminist Movement there, if you only knew it, Cosimo," she replied. "A man has only his intelligence; a woman has intelligence _and_ her intuitions as well."
"You mean you've an intuition I want to get married?" Cosimo broke out. "I swear----"
"Oh, Cosimo, what's the good of swearing? That's merely like that antiquated old Service again, when you promise to love and honour and all the time you're absolutely in the dark. You may not want to at this moment. But you don't know that to-morrow somebody may not want to marry you. I only want it to be the right person--chum of mine," she added softly.
As she put her hand on his arm Cosimo had a little brotherly warming.
He was not aware--or if he had been aware, he had forgotten--that Amory's Aunt Jerry and Mr. Massey lived on Chiswick Mall, hardly a stone's-throw from where they were. They were passing the "Doves" when suddenly Amory exclaimed, "Why, we're quite near to Aunt Jerry's. Shall we go in to lunch?"
Her quick tone seemed a change from the past tense and broodings about his marriage, and he welcomed it eagerly. Moreover, to call on the Masseys would recall enlivening thoughts of that merry wedding day when Mr. Wellcome had got slightly drunk and had passed round the toothpicks. It would be the very thing to take Amory out of herself.