“It is,” she admitted. “I don’t often practise it. The puzzle to me is why I do it to you. Pray tell me, O youth, what makes you so fascinating?”
“Am I?” He appeared hugely gratified. “How jolly!”
“Now who is proud?”
“Me! I own up. I’m bloated with pride. But I always own up. It’s part of my creed.”
“Then, pray, own up something to me.”
“Name it.”
“Why—precisely why—are you willing to give up your plans and your other friends and stay with us at ‘Red Jacket’? No fooling, young man; nothing but the truth, the whole truth.”
He crossed his heart.
“Hope I die.” He imitated the children’s formula, the charm to insure truth. “I want to come because I like you—you and Jerry.”
“Humph! Me and Jerry. Not just me?”