"Why not?"
"To Miss--the girl you were dancing with?"
Again Gifford's tone gave a check to Kelson's enthusiasm.
It was with a more serious face that he replied, "Muriel Tredworth, the
best girl in England. I hope, my dear Hugh, you are not going to say you
don't think so."
"Certainly not," Gifford answered promptly. "I never saw or heard of her
before to-night."
Kelson laughed uncomfortably. A man in love and in the flush of
acceptance wants something more than a lukewarm reception of the news.
"I'm glad to hear it," he responded dryly. "From your tone one might
almost imagine that you knew something against Muriel."
"Heaven forbid!" Gifford ejaculated fervently.
"You don't congratulate me," his friend returned with a touch of
suspicion.
Gifford forced a laugh. "My dear Harry, you have taken my breath away.
You deserve the best wife in the kingdom, and I sincerely hope you have
got her," he said, not very convincingly.
His half-heartedness, not too successfully masked, evidently struck
Kelson. "One would hardly suppose you thought so," he said in a hurt
tone. "I wish," he added warmly, "if there is anything at the back of
your words you would speak out.
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