Undine laughed. "You talk like Ralph! I had Bertha with me."
"BERTHA!" His tone of contempt surprised her. She had supposed that Mrs.
Shallum's presence had made the visit perfectly correct.
"You went without knowing his parents, and without their inviting you? Don't you know what that sort of thing means out here? Chelles did it to brag about you at his club. He wants to compromise you—that's his game!"
"Do you suppose he does?" A flicker of a smile crossed her lips. "I'm so unconventional: when I like a man I never stop to think about such things. But I ought to, of course—you're quite right." She looked at Van Degen thoughtfully. "At any rate, he's not a married man."
Van Degen had got to his feet again and was standing accusingly before her; but as she spoke the blood rose to his neck and ears. "What difference does that make?"
"It might make a good deal. I see," she added, "how careful I ought to be about going round with you."
"With ME?" His face fell at the retort; then he broke into a laugh. He adored Undine's "smartness," which was of precisely the same quality as his own. "Oh, that's another thing: you can always trust me to look after you!"
"With your reputation? Much obliged!"
Van Degen smiled. She knew he liked such allusions, and was pleased that she thought him compromising.
"Oh, I'm as good as gold. You've made a new man of me!"