Page:Encounters (Bowen).djvu/201

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SUNDAY EVENING


breath. "'Turn down an empty glass,'" he said.

"Four years will fly," said Laura.

"All depends," said Fanny." Four years hence———" She shivered.

"Funny if we all met here again," said Archie.

"We won't," said Fanny with conviction.

"Who knows, who knows?" said Gilda.

"Who wants to know? We'd never dare go on."

"Oh, Fanny, dare? . . . We've got to."

"We want to," said Laura quietly.

"Yes, by Jove," said Archie. "It's all been jolly good so far; one feels They wouldn't let one down."

"They?" cried Fanny impatiently. "They who? How dependent, how pitiful, how childish!"

"Well, you don't believe we're in the dark for ever now the sun's gone down," said Gilda uncertainly.

"We guess it may come up again. We chance it. We're such optimists, such cowards!"

"Well, what do you believe?"

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