"Dick," spoke Laura at last, turning and looking him frankly, sweetly in the eyes, "have I done anything to offend you?"
"You, Laura?"
"I wondered," she continued. "You have been so very silent."
"I am afraid I was thinking," muttered Dick. "And that's a very rude thing to do when it makes one seem to ignore the lady who is with him," he added, forcing a smile. "I beg your pardon, Laura, ten times over."
"Oh, I don't mind your being abstracted," she answered simply, "so long as I am not the cause of it."
"You——-"
Dick checked himself quickly.
He had been right on the point of admitting that she had been the cause of his abstraction, and such a statement as that would have called for an abundance of further explanation.
So he forced himself into a peal of laughter that sounded nearly natural.
"If I were to tell you what a ridiculous thing I was thinking about,
Laura!" he chuckled.