The beautiful girl in her white dress with the roses and myrtles in her small hand, turned her face away pettishly.
"How you startled me, Mr. Revington," she said, in a tone of displeasure. "I thought myself alone."
"You are very cruel to hide yourself out here in the orange ground," said the gentleman, sentimentally. "Do you know that I have been searching for you everywhere?"
"No, I did not know it. If I had, I should have hidden myself in a securer place than this," she replied, with all the frank cruelty of a young girl.
"Miss Berlin, you are very cruel," complained the lover. "Sometimes I really wonder whether you say such sharp things in earnest, or if you are only coquetting."
The blue eyes flashed.
"I know nothing of coquetry," said Irene, sharply. "I mean everything that I say."
He came nearer and looked under the brim of the shady hat at the lovely, irritated face and sparkling eyes.
"Oh, Miss Berlin, why will you treat me so coldly when you know that I love the very ground you walk upon?" he exclaimed, almost abjectly.