It staggered him. "What—what do you mean?"
"Oh, nothin'," she replied airily.
Herbert began to be mistrustful of the solid earth: somewhere there was a fearful threat to his equipoise. "What you talkin' about?" he said with an effort to speak scornfully; but his sensitive voice almost failed him.
"Oh, nothin'," said Florence. "Just about what pretty eyes you know you have, and Patty's being pretty, too, and so you're glad she thinks yours are pretty, the way you do—and everything!"
Herbert visibly gulped. He believed that Patty had betrayed him; had betrayed the sworn confidence of "Truth!"
"That's all I was talkin' about," Florence added. "Just about how you knew you had such pretty eyes. Say not so, Herbert! Say not so!"
"Look here!" he said. "When'd you see Patty again between this afternoon and when you came over here?"
"What makes you think I saw her?"
"Did you telephone her?"
"What makes you think so?"