"Very."
He sat up.
"I am sorry. Miss McAlister, had it ever occurred to you that you are outspoken?"
"I don't care if I am."
For an instant, he looked at her angrily. It was a new experience to him to have any one take that tone in addressing him. Then he rose to his feet.
"I am afraid I have been intruding upon your time, Miss McAlister," he said stiffly.
"You needn't get mad," Phebe observed. "People don't all think alike, you know; and I only told you my opinion."
He bowed in silence; then he walked away his hands in his pockets and his cap tilted backwards aggressively. Half-way to the row of awnings, he spoke.
"Little vixen!" he said forcibly. Then he dropped down on the sand at Hope's feet, with his back turned flatly towards the figure under the blue umbrella.
"Then you are coming to supper with us, to-morrow night," Theodora said, as at length he rose to his feet. "I suppose music is a forbidden subject, Mr. Barrett; you probably get very tired of the things people say to you. Still, I have a little cousin staying with me, who is anxious to meet you, and—"