"So your charming sister-in-law eats, does she? After parting from me, too; ugh!"
"Eats? I should think so," laughing softly; "in her own room, when her stays are not too tight."
"Spare me!"
He held up both hands in mock deprecation; then, dropping his bantering tone, said, as he puffed at his cigar:
"But now to business. You did not come out here in such bewitching toilet to tell me that my charmer eats?"
"Hardly," with a pretty shrug.
"To come to an understanding with you," coolly.
"As how?" in the same tone.
"As to our future standing with each other."