"Nothing to me that you hate me and love another?"
"I didn't say I hated you. You're not so very clever yourself at understanding what people say, though you make such a fuss because they don't understand you." Here, as she glanced down the road she suddenly looked glad.
"Aha!" I said.
"What do you mean by 'Aha!'"
"No matter. I will now show you what a man's sympathy is. As you perceived just then, Langan—who is too tall for his age, by-the-by—is coming to pay you a visit. Well, instead of staying with you, as a jealous woman would, I will withdraw."
"I don't care whether you go or stay, I'm sure. I wonder what you would give to be as fine a man as Mr. Langan?"
"All I possess: I swear it! But solely because you admire tall men more than broad views. Mr. Langan may be defined geometrically as length without breadth; altitude without position; a line on the landscape, not a point in it."
"How very clever you are!"
"You don't understand me, I see. Here comes your lover, stepping over the wall like a camel. And here go I out through the gate like a Christian. Good afternoon, Mr. Langan. I am going because Miss Hickey has something to say to you about me which she would rather not say in my presence. You will excuse me?"
"Oh, I'll excuse you," he said boorishly. I smiled, and went out. Before I was out of hearing, Kate whispered vehemently to him, "I hate that fellow."