“People!” she said, scornfully. “Much you care about people. It is because Miss Katherine Earle saw me that you are annoyed. You are afraid that it will interfere with your flirtation with her.”
“Flirtation?”
“Yes, flirtation. Surely it can’t be anything more serious?”
“Why should it not be something more serious?” asked Morris, very coldly. The blue eyes opened wide in apparent astonishment.
“Would you marry her?” she said, with telling emphasis upon the word.
“Why not?” he answered. “Any man might be proud to marry a lady like Miss Earle.”
“A lady! Much of a lady she is! Why, she is one of your own shop-girls. You know it.”
“Shop-girls?” cried Morris, in astonishment.
“Yes, shop-girls. You don’t mean to say that she has concealed that fact from you, or that you didn’t know it by seeing her in the store?”
“A shop-girl in my store?” he murmured, bewildered. “I knew I had seen her somewhere.”