"I shouldn't dare ask you, if I couldn't. One thing that has brought me over here is a thirsting to beat you."
"I haven't touched a club since I came."
"Did it ever occur to you, Miss McAlister, that you were very lazy?"
"Did it ever occur to you, Mr. Barrett, that you were outspoken?"
Like a pair of children, they laughed together, and Phebe suddenly discovered that his eyes were singularly clear and frank. She also discovered that the day was much finer than she had supposed, the sunlight clearer, the air more bracing.
"We may as well cry quits," she said. "I fought you rather violently; you retaliated by telling my family the one sealed chapter of my life."
"But if they don't know it—"
"They do know it; but not my share in it."
For a little distance they strolled along in silence. Then Phebe asked abruptly,—
"You said, that night at Quantuck, that you were in the middle of some work, when I ran into you. Did I break it up entirely; or have you ever finished it?"