Twist, who had been so much perturbed by the idea of having to propose to one or other twin, was miserably upset by the realization that now he needn’t propose to either.  Elliott had cut the ground from under his feet.  He had indeed—­what was the expression he used the evening before?—­yes, nipped in.  There was now no necessity for Anna-Rose to marry him, and Mr. Twist had an icy and forlorn feeling that on no other basis except necessity would she.  He was thirty-five.  It was all very well for Elliott to get proposing to people of seventeen; he couldn’t be more than twenty-five.  And it wasn’t only age.  Mr. Twist hadn’t shaved before looking-glasses for nothing, and he was very distinctly aware that Elliott was extremely attractive.

“It’s not time yet to talk of husbands,” he therefore hotly and jealously said.

“On the contrary,” said Anna-Felicitas gently, “it’s not only time but war-time.  The war, I have observed, is making people be quick and sudden about all sorts of things.”

“You haven’t observed it.  That’s Elliott said that.”

“He may have,” said Anna-Felicitas.  “He said so many things—­”

And again she lapsed into contemplation; into, thought Mr. Twist as he gazed jealously at her profile, an ineffable, ruminating, reminiscent smugness.

“See here, Anna II.,” he said, finding it impossibly painful to wait while she contemplated, “suppose you don’t at this particular crisis fall into quite so many ecstatic meditations.  There isn’t as much time as you seem to think.”

“No—­and there’s Christopher,” said Anna-Felicitas, giving herself a shake, and with that slightly troubled look coming into her face again as of having, in spite of being an angel in glory, somehow got her feet wet.

“Precisely,” said Mr. Twist, getting up and walking about the room.  “There’s Christopher.  Now Christopher, I should say, would be pretty well heart-broken over this.”

“But that’s so unreasonable,” said Anna-Felicitas with gentle deprecation.

“You’re all she has got, and she’ll be under the impression—­the remarkably vivid impression—­that she’s losing you.”

“But that’s so unreasonable.  She isn’t losing me.  It’s sheer gain.  Without the least effort or bother on her part she’s acquiring a brother-in-law.”

“Oh, I know what Christopher feels,” said Mr. Twist, going up and down the room quickly.  “I know right enough, because I feel it all myself.”

“But that’s so unreasonable,” said Anna-Felicitas earnestly.  “Why should two of you be feeling things that aren’t?”

“She has always regarded herself as responsible for you, and I shouldn’t be surprised if she were terribly shocked at your conduct.”

“But there has to be conduct,” said Anna-Felicitas, still very gentle, but looking as though her feet were getting wetter.  “I don’t see how anybody is ever to fall in love unless there’s been some conduct first.”