"Oh, shut up!"
"Will you be just as nice when I see you again?" continued Harry, in a carefully-modulated voice.
"Why do you ask me all this rot?" she said, with another uneasy laugh. "Of course I shall."
"Good."
Harry couldn't think of anything else to say. Then he remembered....
"When I join you again I'm going to bring you a ring. What's your favourite stone?"
"Rubies and diamonds," she answered without a moment's hesitation. "I say, how sporting of you! That'll be ripping!"
He tried to feel touched by her artless joy. He knew he was not an ideally ardent suitor.
"Well, we'll have a good time later on, eh?" he said in her own tone.
"Don't be a silly ass!" replied the girl, her eyes full of tears and tenderness, and her heart of the most sincere joy and affection.