CHAPTER XII
THE BROAD HIGHWAY
Had Dulcie consulted me before accepting Mrs. Stapleton’s invitation to dinner I should have improvised some plausible excuse for declining. She had not, however, given me the chance of refusing, for she had then and there accepted for both of us unconditionally, so that I could not, without being rude, make any excuse for staying away.
“Dulcie,” I said, when we were again alone, “I wish you hadn’t accepted that invitation without first of all consulting me. I really am not keen to go.”
“Oh, don’t be silly!” she exclaimed joyously, and, putting her arms about my neck, she gave me three delicious kisses. “We have quarrelled all the afternoon—you were perfectly horrid to me, you know you were—and if we mope here together all the evening we shall most likely
