“But—but you said any strangeness would be put down to the awkwardness of a girl so recently engaged?”
“No one would give you much credit for being ‘awkward!’” Still more resentfully. “And something might come out. That is why I am obliged to ask you to be a little more guarded.”
“‘More guarded,’” I repeated meekly, like a child who is learning by heart. “Yes. I must. I must try harder to make it seem less ‘unnatural’ that we two should be engaged.”
Again the look, instantly banished, that meant he pined to shake me.
“Thank you,” he said.
“And by the ‘other people,’ I suppose you mean this other—outspoken Mr. Waters who is coming over to ‘inspect’ me? Do you think—are you afraid that he will be sorry for the man who is supposed to be engaged to me?”
Under his breath Mr. William Waters muttered what sounded, at least, like the one word, “IMP!”
I heard him.
Perhaps it was only the first syllable of the word “Impertinence!”