"Much. But you can't have had much practice. Now tell me stories."
Peter had a mind to tell her several, but he refrained, and they grew silent, "Do you think we shall have another day like this?" he demanded, after a little.
"I don't see why not," she said. "But one never knows, does one? The chances are we shan't. It's a queer old world."
"Let's try, anyway; I've loved it," he said.
"So have I," said Julie. "It's the best day I've had for a long time, Peter. You're a nice person to go out with, you know, though I mustn't flatter you too much. You should develop the gift; it's not everyone that has it."
"I've no wish to," he said.
"You are an old bear," she laughed; "but you don't mean all you say, or rather you do, for you will say what you mean. You shouldn't, Peter. It's not done nowadays, and it gives one away. If you were like me, now, you could say and do anything and nobody would mind. They'd never know what you meant, and of course all the time you'd mean nothing."
"So you mean nothing all the time?" he queried.
"Of course," she said merrily. "What do you think?"
That jarred Peter a little, so he said nothing and silence fell on them, and at the Hôtel de Ville in the city he asked if she would mind finishing alone.