"It seems to me now as if he has begun to take an interest in everything I do----"
Her husband became jocular. "Oh, has he?"
Alice's words came at last bluntly. "And it completely upsets me, Walter."
MacBirney laughed again. "Why so?"
She took refuge in a shade of annoyance. "Because I don't like to think about it."
"Think about what?"
"About any man's--if I must say it--paying attention to me, except my husband."
"Now you are hitting me, aren't you, Alice? You are pretty clever, after all," declared MacBirney still laughing.
She threw herself back in her chair. "Oh, Walter, you don't understand at all! Nothing could be further from what I am thinking. I ought not to say he has been attentive enough to speak of. It is not that I dislike Mr. Kimberly. But he does somehow make me uncomfortable. Perhaps I don't understand their way here."
"Why, that is all there is to it, Alice. It's merely their way. Give it no thought. He is simply being agreeable. Don't imagine that every man that sends you flowers is interested in you. Is that all, Allie?"