"Yes," she assented laconically.
"How do your theatricals come on?" asked he.
"'As the man went to be hung,—very slowly,' to use Will's slang, or figure of speech as Flossy calls it."
"This world," the lawyer said rather irrelevantly, "is chiefly figures of speech."
"What does that signify?"
"It signifies that you think of our talk yesterday hyperbolically."
Patty felt herself growing flushed and perturbed. Their conversation hid completely the sentiments underlying it. Her tenderness was met by apparent indifference. What was this talk of figures of speech, when he should have said simply "I love you."
"On the contrary," she replied, "I do not think of our conversation yesterday at all."
"Then, why do you so resolutely keep your face from me?"
"Certainly not because I said any thing yesterday that I am ashamed of."