"But I doubt much if you would be able to hear them, Miss Netta."
"No, I don't think that I should; especially as people talking of things of that sort, even if they had no great fear of being overheard, would speak in a low voice. But that would not matter if I could see their faces. I should know what they were saying."
Roberts did not think it right to offer any remark on what appeared to him to be impossible, and he confined himself to saying in a respectful voice, "Indeed, Miss Netta."
"I am stone-deaf," she said, "but have learned to read what people are saying from the movement of their lips."
Although the "Indeed, miss," was as respectful as before, Netta saw that he did not in the slightest degree believe her.
"Just go to the other end of the room, Roberts, and make some remark to yourself. Move your lips in the same way as if you were talking, but do not make any sound."
Roberts, with military obedience, marched to the other end of the room, placed himself in a corner, and turned round, facing her. His lips moved, and, confident that she could not know what he was saying, he expressed his natural sentiments.
The girl at once repeated the words: "Well, I'm jiggered! This is a rum start; Miss Netta has gone clean off her head."
Roberts' jaw dropped, and he flushed up to the hair.
"I am sure," he began; but he was stopped by the girl's merry laugh.