"I'm real glad of it—I mean I'm real glad you've had such a stroke of luck!"
"Much obliged," he returned. "By the way, you might mention the fact to
Abner E. Spragg next time you run across him."
"Father'll be real glad too, Elmer." She hesitated, and then went on: "You must see now that it was natural father and mother should have felt the way they did—"
"Oh, the only thing that struck me as unnatural was their making you feel so too. But I'm free to admit I wasn't a promising case in those days." His glance played over her for a moment. "Say, Undine—it was good while it lasted, though, wasn't it?"
She shrank back with a burning face and eyes of misery.
"Why, what's the matter? That ruled out too? Oh, all right. Look at here, Undine, suppose you let me know what you ARE here to talk about, anyhow."
She cast a helpless glance down the windings of the wooded glen in which they had halted.
"Just to ask you—to beg you—not to say anything of this kind again—EVER—"
"Anything about you and me?"
She nodded mutely.