n ventured a
timid comment.

"He couldn't object to your eating with me."

"Oh, couldn't he?" cried Zoie, and she turned upon him with a look
of contempt. "If there's anything that he DOESN'T object to," she
continued, "I haven't found it out yet." And with that she threw herself
in a large arm chair near the table, and left Jimmy to draw his own
conclusions.

Jimmy looked about the room as though expecting aid from some unseen
source; then his eyes sought the floor. Eventually they crept to the tip
of Zoie's tiny slipper as it beat a nervous tattoo on the rug. To save
his immortal soul, Jimmy could never help being hypnotised by Zoie's
small feet. He wondered now if they had been the reason of Alfred's
first downfall. He recalled with a sigh of relief that Aggie's feet were
large and reassuring. He also recalled an appropriate quotation: "The
path of virtue is not for women with small feet," it ran. "Yes, Aggie's
feet are undoubtedly large," he concluded. But all this was not solving
Zoie's immediate problem; and an impatient cough from her made him
realise that something was expected of him.

"Why did you lunch with me," he asked, with a touch of irritation, "if
you thought he wouldn't like it?"

"I was hungry," snapped Zoie.

"Oh," grunted Jimmy, and in spite of his dislike of the small creature
his vanity resented the bald assertion that she had not lunched with him
for his company's sake.

"I wouldn't have made an engagement with you of course," she continued,
with a frankness that vanquished any remaining conceit that Jimmy might
have brought with him. "I explained to you how it was at the time. It
was merely a case of convenience. You know that."

Jimmy was beginning to see it more and more in the light of an
inconvenience.

"If you hadn't been in front of that horrid old restaurant just when I
was passing," she continued, "all this would never have happened. But
you were there, and you asked me to come in and have a bite with you;
and I did, and there you are."

"Yes, there I am," assented Jimmy dismally. There was no doubt about
where he was now, but where was he going to end? That was the question.
"See here," he exclaimed with fast growing uneasiness, "I don't like
being mixed up in this sort of thing."

"Of course you'd think of yourself first," sneered Zoie. "That's just
like a man."

"Well, I don't want to get your husband down on me," argued Jimmy
evasively.

"Oh, I didn't give YOU away