"You promised me long ago that you wouldn't say things against Aunt Sarah."
"No, I never did," he declared impenitently. "I only said that I'd try not to say things to you about her that would hurt your feelings."
"Well, weren't you saying them then?"
"That depends entirely upon your feelings; but if they are so sensitive, I'll say I am delighted that the 'venerated Mees Wentsteele,' as the Count calls her, is at last to be benefited by the discipline of having a master."
Alice laughed in spite of herself.
"She won't enjoy that," she declared. "Poor Aunt Sarah, she's been very kind to me, Jack. She's really good-hearted."
"You can't tell from the outside of a chestnut burr what kind of a nut is inside of it," retorted he; "but if you say she is sound, it goes. She's got the outside of the burr all right."
The servant with a fresh course briefly interrupted, and when they had successfully dodged his platter Jack went back to the subject.
"Is it proper to ask what there was in your talk that was especially unpleasant,—not meaning that she was unpleasant, of course, but only that with your readiness to take offense you might have found something out of the way."
Alice smiled faintly as if the question was too closely allied to painful thoughts to allow of her being amused.