IV + 

For instance: the night of the Allardyce dance, after seeing Elena home, I stepped in for a moment to get warm and have her mix me a highball. We sat for a considerable while on the long sofa in the dimly-lighted dining room, talking in whispers so as not to disturb the rest of the house: and Elena was unusually beautiful that night, and I was more than usually in love, more thanks to three of the five drinks she mixed.⁠ ⁠… + 

“You ought to be ashamed of yourself,” she stated, sighing. + 

I did not say anything. + 

“Oh, well, then⁠—! If you will just promise me,” she stipulated, “that you will never in any way refer to it afterwards⁠—” + 

So I promised.⁠ ⁠… And the next day she met me, cool as the proverbial cucumber, and never once did she “refer to it afterwards,” nor did I think it wise to do so either. But the incident, however delightful, puzzled me. It puzzles me even now.⁠ ⁠… + 