“Now, Joe, quit it. I don’t care to be jollied about that.”
“What’s sauce for the gander is ditto for the goose. I wasn’t aware that there was anything serious——”
“There isn’t,” Jack snapped, “and there never will be. Will you stop when I ask you to?”
Joe dropped the subject, but eyed her curiously.
“I take it back,” said he after an interval of silence. “Jack, you’re absolutely pretty. What have you been doing to yourself?”
“I always was pretty,” Jack declared. “The trouble was with your powers of observation.”
“Likely,” said Joe, and fell silent again. Jack picked up a book and began to read. He watched her idly, pleased by the picture she presented. She fidgeted beneath his gaze.
“I wish you wouldn’t stare at me as if I were a recently discovered species,” she exclaimed at last.
“Now I wonder,” said he, “why I never noticed it before.”
Jack dimpled charmingly. “I want to tell you, young man, that you are singularly dense. Even dad knows what I look like.”