“May I speak to you, Miss Bryce?”
She joined him and they walked over to a seat by a wall.
“I wish to apologize for being so short-tempered this morning,” he began.
“Yes, you were,” she replied.
“Captain O’Leary has been in bed since that junket you took him on this morning.”
“I didn’t take him,” said she, “he came.”
“He is in no condition to endure such a strain. I ask you not to let him do such a thing again.”
“I’m not his mother,” she burst out. “He is old enough to take care of himself and I do not intend to act as his trained nurse.”
She looked—and sounded—so young that Major O’Dell laughed.
“All right. I’ll tell him. You were on our boat, weren’t you?”