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OU'VE decided," he said immediately. "Which is it, Claire?"

She shook her head, looking at him sadly. "Thoughtful of you, Walter, to ask me that—here!"

"Isn't it?" The young man's face, not hopeful before she spoke, became gloomier; for correctly he assumed that what she said was an unfavourable portent. "I suppose you think I might have been more tactful to inquire by telephone?"

"No," she returned, and she laughed ruefully. "My idea of tactful is that you'd have made no inquiry at all."

"I see. I should just have let it run on, remaining your undemanding servant forever. Well, I'm afraid tact will have to go by the board."

"I dare say. And you with it, Walter?"

"If you send me by the board with it, yes."

She shrugged her shoulders. "Oh, no! I'd never send you. That's in your own hands: if you go it's because you want to."