"Why?" he began, then laughed.
"Why what?" asked Rose, quickly.
"I was about to ask you a very foolish question."
"Don't hesitate," she said. "Most questions are foolish."
"This is worse--it's idiotic. I was going to ask you why you hadn't
married."
With a sharp stab at the heart, Rose noted the past tense. "Why haven't
you?" she queried, forcing a smile.
"There is only one answer to that question, and yet people keep on
asking it. They might as well ask why you don't buy an automobile."
"Well?" continued Rose, inquiringly.
"Because 'the not impossible she,' or 'he,' hasn't come, that's all."
"Perhaps only one knows," she suggested.
"No," replied Allison, "in any true mating, they both know--they must."
There was a long pause. A smouldering log, in the fireplace, broke and
fell into the embers. The dying flame took new life and the warm glow
filled the room.
"Is that why people don't buy automobiles?" queried Rose, chiefly
because she did not know what else to say.
"The answer to that is that they do."
"Sounds as if you might have taken it from Alice in Wonderland," she
commented.
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