“She speaks some English,” said Kendall, falling into a trap which had not been set for him, and Bert and Maude Knox laughed as he reddened with embarrassment.
“Is she pretty?” Miss Knox demanded of Bert.
“I don’t think so,” Bert said, solemnly. “He keeps her under cover. She must be homely or he’d let her be seen.”
“Now I won’t buy you a dinner,” Kendall said.
“When I am so hungry!” she said, dolefully.
“Don’t blame Ken,” Bert said. “She hardly lets him have an evening to himself.”
“Well,” said Miss Knox, “if you do get a night off I’ll be glad to see you. Probably I won’t be here but a couple of days, though. You come, too, Captain Stanley, if you like.”
“And pay for half of the dinner,” said Bert. “That’s fair. Half the young lady, half the dinner-check. Simple justice.”
“Now I’ve got to run up to my room. I think—mind, I only think—I’m going to have a bath. If the bathtub is still there, and if the water hasn’t stopped running, and if a few other things haven’t happened to the plumbing—Good night.... Don’t think of coming, Captain Ware, if it will make any trouble with your friend.”
The two young officers walked on up the street. Kendall did not feel like talking. He was thinking about Andree and comparing her with Maude Knox. He was wondering what Andree would think of Maude, and what Maude would think of Andree. Also he wondered a bit what Maude thought about him and what sort of an affair she believed him to be carrying on with Andree.... Not that it mattered to him in the least what she thought, but—