She looked at him so seriously that he straightened up and began to laugh. But she did not forget anything he had said, and she began her questions at once:

“Why should you not walk with me?”

“I’ll take that back,” he said, still laughing; “there is every reason why I should walk with you.”

“Oh!... But you said——”

“All I meant was not for you, but for the ordinary sort of girl. Now, the ordinary, every-day, garden girl does not concern you——”

“Yes, she does! Why am I not like her?”

“Don’t attempt to be——”

Am I different—very different?”

“Superbly different!” The flush came to his face with the impulsive words.

She considered him in silence, then: