"I don't understand the joke."
"She had been told she couldn't break an egg in an empty stocking. Then she was made to look in, and there was the broken egg for her pains. I don't know what made me tell you that story."
"It's a very good story. I'll get Miss Abbott to do it to-night. She believes everything."
"And everybody? Then she's a happy woman."
"I wish you'd believe everybody."
"So I do;—nearly everybody. There are some inveterate liars whom nobody can believe."
"I hope I am not regarded as one."
"You? certainly not. If anybody were to speak of you as such behind your back no one would take your part more loyally than I. But nobody would."
"That's something, at any rate. Then you do believe that I love you?"
"I believe that you think so."