"'Selfish'?"
"Yes, really."
Loring exhaled a long breath.
"Well, I like that!" he remarked at last. "You do have the queerest notions, Goddess. It seems to me I've done nothing for years but hike down here to this rotten old place, just when I wanted to be doing something else ... merely to please my mother—and now you calmly suggest that I'm selfish to her!"
"And how long do you stay?"
"Why, you know as well as I do. A fortnight. A great deal longer than I like staying, I can assure you!"
"Two weeks out of every year...." said Sophy musingly. "It is a good deal of time to spare a mother...."
Her eyes were dancing. She could not help it. He looked such a picture of injured innocence.
Loring was utterly unabashed.
"It's really rather a shame of you, Sophy, to say I'm selfish to my mother. You'd better not let her hear you say it— I'll give you that tip!"