How can I otherwise account for my
not checking the lunatic impulse that prompted my next words.
"Well, something has happened," said I, "and if we're to be friends,
you had better know it. Two days ago, for the first time, I told Madame
Brandt that I loved her. This very afternoon I went to get her answer to
my question--would she marry me?--and I found that she had disappeared
without leaving any address behind her. So whenever you hear her name
mentioned you can just tell everybody that she's the one woman in the
whole wide world I want to marry."
"Poor old Simon," said Dale. "Poor old chap."
"That's exactly how things stand."
"Lord, who would have thought it?"
"How I've borne with you talking about her all this evening the devil
only knows," I cried. "You've driven me half crazy."
"You should have told me to shut up."
"I did."
"Poor old Simon. I'm so sorry--but I had no idea you had fallen in love
with her."
"Fallen in love!" said I, losing my head. "She's the only woman on God's
earth I've ever cared for.
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