For a long minute Derek sat with body seemingly stunned, but with mind busily searching for the wisest way in which to take this astounding bit of information. At the end of many seconds of silence he exploded in loud laughter, choosing this method of treating Dorothea's confidence in order to impress her with the ludicrous aspect of the affair, as it must appear to the grown-up mind.
"Funny, isn't it?" she remarked, dryly, when he thought it advisable to grow calmer.
"It's not only funny; it's the drollest thing I ever heard in my life."
"I thought it might strike you that way. That's why I told you."
"And what did you tell him, if I may ask?"
"I told him it was out of the question—for the present."
"For the present! That's good. But why the reservation?"
"I couldn't tell him it would be out of the question always, because I didn't know. As long as he didn't ask me for a definite answer, I didn't feel obliged to give him one."
"I think you might have committed yourself as far as that."
"I prefer not to commit myself at all. I'm very young and inexperienced—"