For if the boy David had been a nervous, frightened creature, the lady who had succeeded him was almost anything else! David had been timorous and given to shrinking; the girl was all quiet assurance. David's eyes had been frightened and round; these eyes were just as round, but, as much as anything else, they seemed to express mild amusement at Anthony's discomfiture.
And that was the way of the whole sex, Anthony reflected bitterly. Having enmeshed mere man and entangled him, hands, feet, and everything else, it was woman's habit to sit and stare calmly, just as this one was sitting and staring, wordlessly inquiring just what he meant to do about it.
"Who are you?" he asked dizzily.
"Um," said the girl meditatively. "Well, if you find it necessary to call me anything, call me—er—Mary."
"Mary what?"
"Just Mary."
"But your other name——"
"You wouldn't be any happier for knowing that either," the girl assured him serenely.
"What on earth does that mean?" Anthony demanded, with almost a return of his old imperious manner.
Mary gazed fixedly at him for a moment, deeply and inscrutably and with that in her eyes which, although he could not name it, caused Anthony's chilly blood to drop several more degrees.