"Eleven o'clock!" she exclaimed.
"Times does fly—doesn't it?—when a man and a woman, each an unexplored mystery to the other, are dining alone and talking about themselves."
"It was my fault," said Susan.
His quizzical eyes looked into hers—uncomfortably far.
She flushed. "You make me feel guiltier than I am," she protested, under cover of laughing glance and tone of raillery.
"Guilty? Of what?"
"You think I've been trying to—to 'encourage' you," replied she frankly.
"And why shouldn't you, if you feel so inclined?" laughed he.
"That doesn't compel me to be—encouraged."
"Honestly I haven't," said she, the contents of seriousness still in the gay wrapper of raillery. "At least not any more than——"
"You know, a woman feels bound to 'encourage' a man who piques her by seeming—difficult."