"An interest in geography, shall we call it?" she chaffed gaily.
"Or astronomy! We will assume that we are both looking for the Little Dipper."
"Good!" she returned on my own note. "Between the affairs of the Holbrooks and your evening Dipper hunt you are a busy man, Mr. Donovan."
"I am not half so busy as you are, Miss Holbrook! It must tax you severely to maintain both sides of the barricade at the same time," I ventured boldly.
"That does require some ingenuity," she replied musingly, "but I am a very flexible character."
"But what will bend will break—you may carry the game too far."
"Oh, are you tired of it already?"
"Not a bit of it; but I should like to make this stipulation with you: that as you and I seem to be pitted against each other in this little contest, we shall fight it all out behind Miss Pat's back. I prefer that she shouldn't know what a—" and I hesitated.
"Oh, give me a name, won't you?" she pleaded mockingly.
"What a beautiful deceiver you are!"