I tapped her on the cheek.
"I did not know Rita Clark was nervous," I bandied.
She looked dreamily into the fire for a while, then she turned round to me and laid her cheek against my knee.
"George!—Joe's been coming home more and more of late. He's been lots nicer to me than he used to be. He brought me a gold brooch with pearls in it, from Vancouver, to-day."
"Good for him!" I remarked.
"It was a lovely brooch," she went on. "I put it in my dress, it looked so pretty. Then Joe asked me to go with him along the beach. Said he wanted to talk to me. I went with him, and he asked me if I would marry him.
"Marry him, mind you!—and I have known him all my life.
"He said he didn't know he loved me till just a little while ago. Said it was all a yarn about the other girls he met.
"He was quiet, and soft as could be. I never saw Joe just the way he was to-day. But I don't feel to Joe as I used to. He has sort of killed the liking I once had for him.
"I got angry about the brooch then. I took it off and handed it back to him.