“Dick, you are no longer an invalid, and it is absurd for you to pose as one.”
“Well, I feel pretty rotten, and I need a lot of attention. Come here, little one, and look after me.”
“It is absurd of you to describe yourself as weak, when you have a grip like that. Why, you positively bruised my arm.”
Dora made a great show of reluctance in coming to Dick’s side. He sat in his father’s arm-chair in the study, near the window, where the warm sunshine could fall upon him.
“You are a prisoner, Dora, until you tell me why you have avoided me during the past few days.”
“Your father requires so much attention.”
“And don’t I?”
“No, you are getting quite yourself again, and rough, and brutal, and tyrannical.”
She looked at him indulgently, and made a little moué.
“You know, we’re engaged, Dora, and, when a fellow is in love with a girl with lots of money, like you, it’s only natural that he should take every opportunity 341 of being with his sweetheart. And he doesn’t expect that same sweetheart to give him the cold shoulder.”