"Yes—you——"
"No, I did not say so!... I—I love your vows."
"How can you love my vows and not me?" I demanded angrily.
"I don't know I can do it, but I do.... But I will love them no longer if you make the selfsame vows to her."
"Now," said I, perplexed and exasperated, "what does it profit a man when a maid confesses that she loves to hear his vows, but loves not him who makes them?"
"For me to love even your vows," said she, looking at me sideways, "is something gained for you—or so it seems to me. And were I minded to play the coquette—as some do——"
"You play it every minute!"
"I? When, pray?"
"When I came to Croghan's this afternoon there were you the centre of 'em all; and one ass in boots and spurs to wave your fan for you—oh, la! And another of Franklin's, in his Wyandotte finery, to fetch and carry; and a dozen more young fools all ogling and sighing at your feet——"
Her lips parted in a quick, nervous laugh: