“I see you have found him,” she said, with a ripple of laughter.
Dick welcomed this interruption of the graver mood.
“Sadie,” he said, with a manner of the utmost seriousness, “you are looking finer than ever. And how thin you have grown!”
The girl, eager with fond fancies toward the slender ideal, accepted the compliment literally.
“Oh, Mr. Dick!” she exclaimed, rapturously. “How much do you think I have lost?”
The whimsical heir of the house of Gilder surveyed his victim critically, then spoke with judicial solemnity.
“About two ounces, Sadie.”
There came a look of deep hurt on Sadie's face at the flippant jest, which Dick himself was quick to note.
He had not guessed she was thus acutely sensitive concerning her plumpness. Instantly, he was all contrition over his unwitting offense inflicted on her womanly vanity.
“Oh, I'm sorry, Sadie,” he exclaimed penitently. “Please don't be really angry with me. Of course, I didn't mean——”