"This affair of to-night," she observed, "was it particularly brutal?"
"No; I wouldn't say that," replied Pete, reflectively.
"Had it been going on very long?"
"Not very long, miss."
Mary thought for a moment before she framed the next question.
"Just an ordinary vulgar brawl between two ruffians, I take it?"
Pete unclasped his hands and made a quick gesture of dissent.
"Not at all; not at all. Why, it was a pip——"
He pulled himself up short and coughed. There was a gleam in Mary's gray eyes.
"Fortunately, it had not progressed far enough to become actually brutal," said Pete, and he showed for the first time since she had known him a trace of confusion.