'I'll try.'

'Have you been wanting to get away from this place -- I mean, to live
somewhere else?'

'I? What can have made you think so?'

'That isn't trying to answer a question, you know.'

Alma, after looking keenly at him, had turned her face to the window.
She kept silence, and wore a look of calm reflectiveness.

'Have you been bored and wearied by this life?' Harvey asked in his most
good-natured tone.

'I don't think I have ever for a moment shown a sign of it,' replied
Alma, with grave conviction.

'So much the worse, if it meant that you concealed your thoughts.'

'I shall always be content, Harvey, so long as I see you are living the
kind of life that suits you.'

He uttered a shout of humorous, yet half-genuine, exasperation.

'Do you want me to swear it's a long time since I lost the habit, but it
might strike you as manly, and perhaps I had better practise again. What
has it to do with _you_, the kind of life that suits _me_? Don't you
remember my talking about that before we were married? I've had a