“I couldn’t say, but we had one this afternoon.”
“And was she very charming? Did she call you Baby?”
He shrugged his shoulders and turned to Lorraine.
“I only waste my substance trying to cope with any one as obtuse as Hal. Is she going to stay to dinner?”
“I’m afraid so,” smilingly.
He took up his stand on the rug, with his back to the fire and looked down at Hal on her footstool.
“It’s a pity about the obtuseness,” he commented, “because she is really rather nice to look at. She has improved so much lately.”
“Oh no, I haven’t,” tilting her nose in the air. “I am exactly the same; but you have acquired better taste. Is he going to stay to dinner, Lorraine?” “I’m afraid so. You will have to call a truce, because I want to hear all about the brief; and I shall hear nothing if you persist in wrangling.”
“It isn’t my fault,” he said. “I always try to be friends.”
“Well, as far as that goes, I always try to like you,” Hal retorted with a laugh.