Again I used abstinence and stopped myself from telling her that she could never have done it, for she was quite solemn, and I thought we were getting at something. I hoped, too, that we should get it quickly, for a tired feeling was creeping over me.
"You are only eighteen," I said.
"I am nineteen next week," she answered, and I knew that she meant this both as a rebuke and a reminder.
"That's not very old."
"It's old enough for me to know that you and I will never quarrel about trifles," she said.
"Then will you come to the 'Varsity match?" I asked.
"You don't think the 'Varsity match a trifle, do you?"
"I'm not going to sit here and quibble; you're too clever altogether," I said, and I got up and wondered in which direction there was most to do, but Nina stood up, too, and put her hand through my arm.
"Let us go for a walk by the river before dinner," she said, and after asking what good she thought that would do I went.
"My dear Godfrey, you are simply splendid," she went on, "the dearest old bungler I know. You remind me of the Faulkners' ostrich, which goes on tapping at the window when it has been opened and there is nothing to tap at."