Daisy Ross was annoyed, almost indignant, and with reason. As she said to Mr. Clifford--  
"It's really too ridiculous! One's wedding day is an occasion of some importance, even to a man." Mr. Clifford admitted that it was. "While to a woman it involves a frightful strain." Mr. Clifford again agreed. "Very well, then; a little consideration surely should be shown; Mr. Oldfield's conduct is absurd."
 
"He certainly is placing me in a very awkward position."
 
"I should think he was; considering that the bridesmaids' dresses are practically finished, and that two of them have to go away on the day after the one we fixed, how are we going to postpone the wedding?"
 
"I'm sure I don't know; but what am I to do? His conduct's most mysterious."
 
"My dear Frank, his conduct's not only mysterious, it's monstrous; and I don't care what you say. He knows you are going to be married."
 
"Of course he does; he's known about it all along."
 
"He knows when you are going to be married."
 
"Certainly, I asked him to be present; he gave me to understand that probably he would be."
 
"Then probably he will be."
 
"But suppose I see or hear nothing of him in the meanwhile?"
 
"He is a most exasperating man. How long is it since you have heard anything of him?"
 
"About two months; rather over than under."
 
"Something must have happened to him."
 
"You know his ways; I've told you about them often enough. When he leaves the office, unless he volunteers the information, I never know when I shall see him again, and unless I've some pressing reason for wanting to know I never ask; I've more sense. He dislikes being questioned about anything, and he's always shown what I've felt is really a morbid objection to being questioned about his movements; it's only quite recently that I've known his private address. It isn't as if this sort of thing hadn't happened before; it has, again and again. One evening, about a couple of years ago, he left the office quite late, after being in regular daily attendance, early and late, for some weeks; I expected he would come on the following day in the ordinary course, but I never saw or heard anything of him for close upon four months; then one morning he walked in, and, without offering a word of explanation, took up the thread of affairs just where he had left it, and, what's more, showed quite a good knowledge of what had been going on during his absence."
 
"But what a state things would have got into if it hadn't been for you."
 
"Quite so; that's just the point, he trusts me. In the ordinary course of business I have complete control of everything. If anything unusual turns up, which is of importance, I hold it over for reference to him; but in the general way I run the entire show; which, after all, isn't saying so very much, because, when all is said and done, he's a first-rate man of business and a splendid organizer, so that it's quite easy for me to do. And you know, Daisy, he treats me very generously, and always has done; I've practically a share in the concern, which is a free gift from him."
 
"I suppose you're worth what he gives you."
 
"All the same, I never put in a penny--I never had one to put; and there are hundreds, I dare say thousands, of men who could do all I do, and who'd be only too glad to do it, for a tenth part of what he gives me."
 
"If I were you, I shouldn't tell him so."
 
"He knows, my dear, he knows. He's the same with everybody about the place; it's a principle of his to treat everybody generously who does honest work for him; he wouldn't be happy if he thought that a man wasn't getting a fair share of the fruits of his own labours. In spite of his little eccentricities he's a magnificent fellow, and I couldn't do anything to annoy or disappoint him--not--well, I wouldn't do it."
 
Miss Ross sighed.
 
"You hadn't arranged to be married during that four months' absence of his."
 
"I certainly hadn't."
 
"Suppose the wedding-day had been fixed for two months after he had gone, and he had known it, would you have postponed it indefinitely, till he condescended to turn up again?"
 
"I don't know what I should have done, I really don't; but I tell you what we might do--that is, if you wouldn't mind very much."
 
"Oh, never mind what I mind; my wishes aren't of the slightest consequence; I shall begin to wish that I wasn't going to be married!"
 
"Daisy! don't say that, even in jest. It's as hard upon me as it is upon you."
 
"Honestly, Frank, I don't see it. To a man, having his wedding-day postponed, and that indefinitely, is, of course, rather a nuisance; but to a woman, it's--it's quite a different thing."
 
"But I'm not going to suggest that it shall be postponed."
 
"Then what are you going to suggest? What have you been suggesting for the last--I don't know how long?"
 
"That's because the idea never occurred to me until just now; I don't know why; I suppose it's because I'm stupid."
 
"Now what idea have you got into your head?"
 
"I think I see a way out of the difficulty; that is, if you'll agree."
 
"Agree to what?"
 
"The great thing for us is to be married, isn't it?"
 
"I don't know that I'm prepared to admit it till I know what you're leading up to."
 
"Very well, then, as one of the parties I'll admit it; the one thing for which I'm living is to be married to you; when I am married I'll be happy."
 
"Thank you; that's very nice of you; but I'm not going to admit anything till I know what it is you've got at the back of your head."
 
"We're going to be married on Thursday--that is, this day week."
 
"We were to have been married on Thursday; I know my wedding dress is coming home on Wednesday."
 
"And after the wedding we're to start for a three months' tour on the continent, something like a honeymoon."
 
"We were to have started for a three months' tour."
 
"That's what I arranged with Mr. Oldfield. I said to him, 'Mr. Oldfield, after my marriage--at which I trust you'll be present--I hope to go abroad with my wife for a month, if I can be spared from the office.' He said to me, 'Clifford, why not make it three months?' I stared; he went on: 'A man isn't married often!'"
 
"Frank!"
 
"That's what he said; and it's true. 'Therefore there's no reason why he shouldn't make the most of it when he is; you take your wife abroad for three months, I'll see you're spared from the office.' And that's how it was arranged."
 
"Yes, and then he goes and disappears, and I'm not to be married at all, and that's how it's disarranged."
 
"Not a bit of it; the wedding needn't be postponed; the more I think of it the less reason do I see why it should."
 
"Frank! Then what ever have you been talking to me about ever since I don't know when!"
 
"Mr. Oldfield's continued absence needn't prevent my sparing a day to get away from the office to be married."
 
"Needn't it! I'm sure it's very nice of you to talk about sparing a whole day for a trifling thing like that."
 
"In any case, all that need suffer is the three months' tour. If Mr. Oldfield hasn't turned up by Thursday, after............