"Why? Why——" Once again the rakish, confused young face lifted, but this time at least a single illuminating conviction transfigured its confusion. "Why—because she was so pretty!"
With a cigarette at his lips, a match poised halfway in mid-air, Jaffrey Bretton's heels clicked together. Sharp as the crackle of a trainer's whip his smile snapped into the situation.
"So you admit that she is pretty?" he asked quite tersely.
As though the question were a hook that fairly yanked him to his feet the stranger struggled upward and crossed his limp arms on his breast.
"She is—adorable!" he testified.
"And young?" urged Jaffrey Bretton.
"Very young," acknowledged the stranger. 74
"And—spirited?" prodded Jaffrey Bretton. "Even tom-boyish perhaps? And distinctly innocent?"
"Oh, perfectly spirited!" grinned the stranger a bit wanly. "Ditto tom-boyish! And most essentially innocent!"
"So innocent," persisted Jaffrey Bretton. "So tom-boyish—so spirited—so young—so pretty—that taken all in all the only wonder is that—she wasn't expelled from college before."