A little frown appeared on Aline's forehead and she set her mouth mutinously.
"I'm not weakening at all," she said, and her voice was—for her—quite acid. "You—you take too much for granted."
George was contemplating the landscape with a conqueror's eye.
"You are beginning to see that it is impossible—this Freddie foolishness."
"It is not foolishness," said Aline pettishly, tears of annoyance in her eyes. "And I wish you wouldn't call him Freddie."
"He asked me to. He asked me to!"
Aline stamped her foot.
"Well, never mind. Please don't do it."
"Very well, little girl," said George softly. "I wouldn't do anything to hurt you."
The fact that it never even occurred to George Emerson he was being offensively patronizing shows the stern stuff of which these supermen are made.