“It is such a sad thing to think, David, that it can’t just remain a friendship. I am thinking of the friend I have lost. There are many girls who are terribly excited about men—falling in love with them. I’m not that way. I only wish—because in the end it’s you who lose—isn’t it?”

“How long have you known him?”

“Ted? Almost a year.”

She looked, and saw the lingering question in my eye.

“Oh, David, you don’t understand me at all!”

“Yes, yes, I do, but sometimes—”

“If I cared for him, do you think I’d tell any one—even you?”

This brought me up sharp. I laughed, quite amazed, and not at all sure that I liked it.

“That’s a rather queer way of putting it.”