He was inclined to be very incensed, but with good sense made a moral vault of it, and landed lightly the other side of his own temper. Once there, he could afford to echo the hussy’s merriment.
“You are a bad girl,” he said, grinning, and shaking a finger; “but I can see we are going to be great friends. Hist, though!”
He looked about him cautiously, and then approached her.
“Stand and deliver,” said she, and backed a little.
“No, no,” he said; “on my honour, I only wish a word in confidence.”
“O, I know that word!” she said. “I’m not so young but I’ve learned to crack nuts with my own teeth.”
“Here it is, then,” he said, coming no farther. “There’s this difficulty in the way of our good understanding—that it can owe no encouragement to my lady, your friend.”
“Why not, now?”
“Why, the truth is, we’re—we’re not on speaking terms.”
“Lord-a-mussy! What’s the matter?”