"I thought you were in love with Harry Needles," Bim's mother said to her.
"I am. But he keeps me so busy. I have to dress him up every day and put a mustache on him and think up ever so many nice things for him to say, and when he comes he doesn't say them. He's terribly young."
"The same age as you. I think he is a splendid boy—so does everybody."
"I have to make all his courage for him, and then he never will use it," Bim went on. "He has never said whether he likes my looks or not."
"But there's time enough for that—you are only a child," said her mother. "You told me that he said once you were beautiful."
"But he has never said it twice, and when he did say it, I didn't believe my ears, he spoke so low. Acted kind o' like he was scared of it. I don't want to wait forever to be really and truly loved, do I?"
Mrs. Kelso laughed. "It's funny to hear a baby talking like that," she said. "We don't know this young man. He's probably only fooling anyway."
Bim rose and stood very erect.
"Mother, do you think I look like a baby?" she asked. "I tell you I'm every inch a woman," she added, mimicking her father in the speech of Lear.
"But there are not many inches in you yet."