Rosy color flooded her fair skin, and I saw that she remembered what I was talking about.
I knew I shouldn't have brought up the subject again, but I reasoned that I would suffer more from curiosity if she never told me than she would suffer from embarrassment if she did.
Her bright blue eyes darted around the room, to avoid meeting mine.
"Yes, I remember. Of course I've known you long enough. It's just that one has difficulty in talking about such things ..."
"I suppose he played a rather crude joke on you?" I prodded.
"No, it--it wasn't a joke. It was something he gave me. It was--oh, dear, I don't know how to say it. I suppose he meant well, but it was really a most embarrassing gift . . ."
She clasped and unclasped her tiny hands. "It really shocked me, especially since it had been only a few minutes since we had met. You see, he gave me a little undressed--that is, actually nude--ooh!" Miss Nestleburt gasped. Her eyes, in their uneasy jaunt around the room, had caught sight of the bookcase and what was on top of it--the perfume atomizer Mr. Hawkins had given me.
"He--he gave you one too?" she asked weakly. I nodded, and we dissolved into helpless laughter.
Our merriment was cut into abruptly by a loud crash and splintering outside.
"A wreck!" I exclaimed, dashing through the door and forming the first catch sentence for the story as I ran.