"But I'm awfully sorry," he protested. "All my fault. You must let me make it good."
This suggestion added to Nan's mirth. "Oh, I couldn't really. I should feel as if I was married to you, and I shouldn't like that at all. Now you needn't look cross, for you know you wouldn't either. No, don't be silly, Jerry. It doesn't matter the least little bit in the world."
"But, I say, won't the absent one be savage?" suggested Jerry.
Nan tossed her head. "I'm sure I don't know. Anyhow it doesn't matter."
"Do you really mean that?" he persisted. "Don't you really care?"
Nan threw herself back in the boat with her face to the stars.
"Why, of course not," she declared, with regal indifference. "How can you be so absurd?"
And in face of such sublime recklessness, he was obliged to be convinced.