WAR
"Gosh-a-mighty!" says I. "Now, you don't say, you don't really say so! That quick! Not a minute wasted! And what did you say?"
She laughs again, like she'd burst open.
"What did I say! Do you really have to be told that?"
"Yes," I says, "I want to know. I'm thick in my skull."
Then she turns solemn.
"Why, daddy, I said what every other woman on earth would have said, if he had asked them!"
"He didn't ask the others, I expect," says I, "anyhow, not quite all of them. And I don't know what they said. But what did you say?—that's the conundrum that bothers me."
She pulls my ear down and whispers in it:
"Yes! And then, so that he couldn't misunderstand—it would have been frightful for him to misunderstand, like his dear old daddy, wouldn't it?"
"I expect so," nods I.
"Well, then, so that he might not misunder-
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