"It's no more than I've heard him call himself," I said.
"You must know him rather intimately."
"On the contrary, I know him very slightly, though I've been thrown with him considerably."
"Are you not friendly?" she asked.
"We have had differences."
Again the roses did duty. "I fear you are prejudiced," she said, and I thought I caught a smothered laugh.
"Not at all," I insisted. "I am disposed in his favor."
"So I should judge."
I could not decide which way she meant it. "Oh, he is not all bad," I condescended. "In many ways he is a good sort of chap."
"Now, that's better." she rejoined; "to say for him what he could not, of course, say for himself."