“Ye-es?”
“You know, I think it high time the bounder is taken down a peg.”
“Ah, indeed! Then why do you not try it?”
“Miss Genevieve! you know that at present I am physically so much his inferior–”
“How about mentally?”
Though the girl’s eyes were veiled by their lashes, she saw Winthrope cast after Blake a look that seemed to her almost fiercely vindictive.
“Well?” she said, smiling, but watching him closely.
“Mentally!–We’ll soon see about that!” he muttered. “I must say, Miss Genevieve, it strikes me as deuced odd, you know, to hear you speak so pleasantly of a person who–not to mention past occurrences–has to-day, with the most shocking disregard of–er–decency–”
“Stop!–stop this instant!” screamed the girl, her nerves overwrought.
Winthrope smiled with complacent assurance.