Miserably enough Gertrude murmured:

“Are you in love with Annette?”

Hotly and indignantly he answered:

“No, I am not.”

“But you . . .”

“I was not making love to Annette. It was an accident.”

Gertrude jumped at the occasion for magnanimity and said:

“I believe you.”

“Thank you.” His heart leaped within him, and privately to his own innermost conscience he whispered delightedly:

“I am in love with Annette; in love, in love, in love with Annette.”