"Now if Alfred had only told me that in the first place," she continued,
"I'd have known what to say, but he didn't. Oh no, he was as sweet as
could be all through breakfast and last night too, and then just as he
was leaving this morning, I said something about luncheon and he said,
quite casually, 'Where did you have luncheon YESTERDAY, my dear?' So I
answered quite carelessly, 'I had none, my love.' Well, I wish you could
have seen him. He called me dreadful things. He says I'm the one thing
he can't endure."
"What's that?" questioned Jimmy, wondering how Alfred could confine
himself to any "ONE thing."
"He says I'm a liar!" shrieked Zoie tearfully.
"Well, aren't you?" asked Jimmy.
"Of course I am," declared Zoie; "but why shouldn't I be?" She looked
at Jimmy with such an air of self-approval that for the life of him he
could find no reason to offer. "You know how jealous Alfred is," she
continued. "He makes such a fuss about the slightest thing that I've got
out of the habit of EVER telling the TRUTH." She walked away from
Jimmy as though dismissing the entire matter; he shifted his position
uneasily; she turned to him again with mock sweetness. "I suppose YOU
told AGGIE all about it?" she said.
Jimmy's round eyes opened wide and his jaw dropped lower. "I--I--don't
believe I did," he stammered weakly. "I didn't think of it again."
"Thank heaven for that!" concluded Zoie with tightly pressed lips. Then
she knotted her small white brow in deep thought.
Jimmy regarded her with growing uneasiness. "What are you up to now?" he
asked.
"I don't know yet," mused Zoie, "BUT YOU'RE NOT GOING TO TELL
AGGIE--that's ONE SURE thing." And she pinned him down with her eyes.
"I certainly will tell her," asserted Jimmy, with a wag of his very
round head. "Aggie is just the one to get you out of this."
"She's just the one to make things worse," said Zoie decidedly. Then
seeing Jimmy's hurt look, she continued apologetically: "Aggie MEANS
all right, but she has an absolute mania for mixing up in other people's
troubles. And you know how THAT always ends."
"I never deceived my wife in all my life," declared Jimmy, with an air
of self approval that he was far from feeling.