"I suppose _you_ didn't put your finger against
the pendulum of that clock?"
"Oh, _no_!" she replied with emphasis.
"Well, I'm jolly glad it did stop, anyway," said Richard. "What a lark,
eh?"
She agreed that the lark was ideal. They walked down the road till a car
should overtake them.
"Do you think she suspects anything?" Eva asked.
"I'll swear she doesn't," said Richard, positively. "It'll be a bit of a
startler for the old girl."
"No doubt you've heard," said Eva, haltingly, "that Mr Loggerheads has
cast eyes on Mary."
"And do you think there's anything _in_ that?" Richard questioned
sharply.
"Well," she said, "I really don't know." Meaning that she decidedly
thought that Mary _had_ been encouraging advances from Mr Loggerheads.
"Well," said Richard, superiorly, "you may just take it from me that
there's nothing in it at all.... Ha!" He laughed shortly. He knew Mary.
Then they got on a car, and tried to behave as though their being
together was a mere accident, as though they had not become engaged to
one another within the previous twenty-four hours.
II
Immediately after the departure of Richard Morfe and Eva Harracles, his
betrothed, from the front door of the former, Mr Simon Loggerheads
arrived at the same front door, and rang thereat, and was a little
surprised, and also a little unnerved, when the door opened instantly,
as if by magic.
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