"Ah, but I like you earnest, Marko."
There was the tiniest silence between them. Yet it seemed to Sabre a very long silence.
She was again the one to speak, and her tone was rather abrupt and high-pitched as if she, too, were conscious of a long silence and broke it deliberately, as one breaks, with an effort, constraint.
"And how's Mabel?"
"She's all right. She's ever so keen on this Garden Home business."
"She would be," said Nona.
"And so am I!" said Sabre. Something in her tone made him say it defiantly.
She laughed. "I'm sure you are, Marko. Well, good-by"; and as Derry and Toms began to turn with his customary sedateness of motion she made the remark, "I'm so glad you don't wear trouser clips, Marko. I do loathe trouser clips."
He told her that he rode "one of those chainless bikes."
He said it rather mumblingly. Exactly in that tone she used to say things like, "I do like you in that brown suit, Marko."