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 right now. I suppose it's horrid to be so selfish—but, oh, Oliver, aren't you glad it wasn't the children? Aren't you?"

"Certainly, my dear!" said Oliver, in such a droll matter-of-fact tone that we all laughed quite spontaneously. "And now shall we talk of something else? Or do you wish me to telephone to the Infant that their mother has been anxiously expecting them for at least five minutes?"

"No, don't telephone," Cornelia protested. "It's really only just after one. I'm sure they will be here in plenty of time for the train. And please don't change the subject. I heard what you were saying. You were talking about automobiles and automobile accidents. That is what made me so 'jumpy,' I suppose. I'll not be silly any more. What were you going to say about automobiles when I interrupted?"

"It would be hard," I said, "to avoid 'improving the occasion' a little. Heaven knows I didn't get up the accident to illustrate my argument—and there's no reason to suppose that it does illustrate my argument exactly. These people may all have been perfectly sober. But if this thing, just now, had happened in a story, like that, we should have felt that it was contrived and artificial—I