Jerry tried to defend himself by charging Jack with never being able to appreciate a compliment unless he were himself the subject, and so they drifted lightly from one bit of good-natured raillery to another. Now and then a more serious note was struck, and through it all the spirit of the party was more kindly and friendly than could be pictured by any words in which they might have tried to express it.
When dinner was over, they went for a short stroll on the promenade. It naturally happened that Mrs. Fairhew walked with Taberman, and that Jack and Katrine strolled on together some little distance behind.
"You don't know," said Jack, for the fourth or fifth time that evening, but with an evident sincerity which might have excused even further repetition, "how good it is to see you again."
"Yes," Katrine responded with a carelessness too complete to be entirely genuine, "I suppose that it must be pleasant for you to see any one after being cooped up in a boat for five or six weeks."
"That's not at all what I meant," he returned pointedly, and with a little vexation.
"Perhaps not; but it's practically what you said."
"I said it gave me pleasure to see you," Jack insisted, with a daring emphasis on the final pronoun.
"Oh, a compliment!" she exclaimed, as if the thought had just struck her.
"You may take it as such," he replied rather grumpily. "It's the feminine attitude toward everything."