"What time is it?"
"Near one."
"I thought, from the look of it, that it might be near two."
"Don't mar my ideal of you, Verry, by growing witty."
She shrugged her shoulders. "I guess you found it washed ashore, among the rocks; was it bruised?"
"A man gave it to me."
"A merman, who fills the sea-halls with a voice of power?"
"May be."
"Tut, Ben gave it to you. It is a kind of housekeepish present; did he add scissors and needle-case?"
"What if the merman should take me some day to the 'pale sea-groves straight and high?'"