He smiled in a way that merited annihilation.
"Of course you dared me," added Billy. "Everything you did or said was a dare. Every time you were so scornful and so superior it was a dare. Why, I couldn't have helped it if I'd tried. And I didn't try, as a matter of fact."
Rosalind was in a strange plight of mind. She tried to summon haughtiness, but the mood would not respond. Her armor seemed to have fallen from her.
"You—you were brutally insulting," she faltered.
"I suppose I wasn't very polite," he admitted. "Nevertheless, you'll have to admit you weren't very polite to me. Let's forget the whole business."
"Forget?"
"Why not? What's the use of rehashing it?"
"You expect me to forget—after what has happened? The tree—and the water—and the por—portrait!"
"It wasn't a portrait," he said mildly. "I made a mistake. As for the telegram—Bob misunderstood when I wired him. I only wanted to be sure who you were. I wasn't bidding. At first I thought it wasn't a bad picture. But I found out I was wrong."
She looked up at him.