Minnie [trying to laugh lightly and succeeding in emitting a rather tame cackle]. Love me! The idea! Who would ever love a spectacled old thing like me?
Herbert. Oh, you don't know, you know. Besides you shouldn't talk that way about yourself.
Minnie [smiling full at him]. I should tell the truth, shouldn't I?
Herbert [locking and unlocking his fingers]. But it isn't the truth.
Minnie [looking down]. Oh!
Herbert [with real courage]. That's the truth! You see the difference, don't you?
Minnie. Well, I'd like to know what I am if I'm not that. No one ever intimated before that I am anything else. My little brother has maintained it ever since he learned to talk.
Herbert. Well, you're not; you're—— [He hesitates. Thereafter he speaks quite as a locomotive puffs on a steep grade. There are two or three large, lusty puffs followed by a chain of spasmodic little puffs.]
Minnie [encouragingly]. Yes?