"I-I'm afraid so," the girl acknowledged, with a little grimace. "You'd think he'd never seen a woman before. He's very—intense. Very!"
"You don't expect me, as your chaperon, to approve of your behavior?
Why, you've been flirting outrageously."
"I had to flirt a little: I simply had to know what was going on.
But—I fixed him."
"Indeed?"
"I couldn't let him spoil my fun, could I? Of course not. Well, I put a damper on him. I told him about you—about us."
O'Reilly was puzzled. "What do you mean?" he inquired.
"You won't be angry, will you? When he waxed romantic I told him he had come into my life too late. I confessed that I was in love with another man—with you." As her hearer drew back in dismay Miss Evans added, quickly, "Oh, don't be frightened; that isn't half—"
"Of course you're joking," Johnnie stammered.
"Indeed I'm not. I thought it would discourage him, but—it didn't. So
I told him a whopper. I said we were engaged." The speaker tittered.
She was delighted with herself.
"Engaged? To be MARRIED?"