Now tell me." Mr.Sarrazin weakly attempted to gain time: he looked at his watch.
Kitty looked over his shoulder: "Oh, we needn't be in a hurry; breakfast won't be ready for half an hour yet.

Plenty of time to talk of Syd; go on." Most unwisely (seeing that he had to deal with a clever child, and that child a girl), Mr.Sarrazin tried flat denial as a way out of the difficulty.

He said: "I don't know why she has gone away." The next question followed instantly: "Well, then, what do you _think_ about it ?" In sheer despair, the persecuted friend said the first thing that came into his head.
"I think she has gone to be married." Kitty was indignant.
"Gone to be married, and not tell me!" she exclaimed.

"What do you mean by that ?" Mr.Sarrazin's professional experience of women and marriages failed to supply him with an answer.

In this difficulty he exerted his imagination, and invented something that no woman ever did yet.