"Then what are you asking me for?"
"Because you seem to have watched me—"
"I didn't watch you," she denied, indignantly. "The idea! You sure have your nerve with you. I couldn't help seeing a guy that was right under my eyes, could I? Besides which—"
"Yes? Besides which—?" I insisted.
She brought the words out with an air of chaffing embarrassment. "Well, you weren't got up as you are now. Do you know it?"
As I reddened and stammered something about the war, she laid her hand on my arm soothingly.
"There now! There now! That's all right. I never give any one away. You can see for yourself that I can't have knocked about the world like I've done without running up against this sort of thing a good many times—"
"What sort of thing?"
"Oh, well, if you don't know I needn't tell you. But I'm your friend, kid. That's all I want you to know. It's why I told you about myself. I wanted you to see that we're all in the same boat. Harry Drinkwater's your friend, too. He likes you. You stick by us and we'll stick by you and see the thing through."
It was on my lips to say, "What thing?" but she rattled on again.