"It does interest me. You know it does. But there's something I'd like to say to you if you won't be angry."
"At you? Why——"
"It's this: I want you so much to get on. Why won't you try harder to—to please Uncle Peter?"
"I do try. I'm square with him. That's the trouble. That's why I don't make more of a hit. He asks me my 'honest opinion' about something or other. I give it. Then he blows up."
"But if you'd try to be more tactful——"
"You said that once before to me, Miss Katie. I asked you what 'tactful' meant. And when you told me——"
"When I told you, you said it was 'just a fancy name for being hypocritical.' But it isn't, a bit. Can't you try not to be quite so—so——?"
"Cranky?"
"No, blunt. It will smooth things over so much with Uncle Peter. He's really the gentlest, dearest——"
"I've noticed it," said Hartmann drily. "But I'll try if you want me to. I promise."