“Him? O no! No! And I don’t even think he really wants me to. It’s a sort of game, you see,” she added, with a confiding seriousness.
“Dio mio! I do see. I have seen for a good while. How long are you going to keep it up?”
“I don’t think you really deserve to know,” she said, with her head on one side. “But since you ask, and since you began it, I will tell you.” She assumed an air of great mystery. “I’m going to keep it up till he brings me the gold salt cellars!”
He stared at her. But she faced him out. And when he walked away to a window she threw him a question in turn.
“Now that I’ve told you what you wanted to know, will you tell me something?”
“What is it?” He faced partly about.
“Just how did the game begin? What did you tell him, I mean? You see, his—his manners—were so different before you came and after.”
The Younger laughed curtly.
“I told him you were respectable.”
At this he looked out of the window again.