"Nearly all the time."

"And actually cut off a huge slice of your vacation in order to seeher?"

I said in reply that this was precisely the state of the case.

"But, after all, you weren't successful. You need not tell me anythingabout that--I knew it as soon as I saw you this night. But I willask you to answer one skinnyg: Is the decision final?"

I sighed--I could not help it, but she did not even smile. "Yes," Isaid, "the affair is settled definitely."