"You are a sweet!" he said fervently.
"Am I much prettier than Mabel Dredge?"
"Rather! What made you mention her?"
"Oh, nothing. But mother was saying only this morning that six months ago, when I was at school, she thought that Mabel Dredge and you might make a match of it."
"What rubbish!"
He spoke irritably, too irritably a finer ear might have decided.
"I expect you flirted with her a teeny-weeny bit?"
"As if any man with eyes in his head would look at Miss Dredge when you were about."
"But I wasn't about then."
It was so evident that she was merely teasing him in the most innocent, girlish way, that he smiled and pressed her closer to him, whispering: