He dared not ask her what had caused her lateness.
"What will you tell her?"
"That my mother is ill, dead … how do I know?"
He was hurt by her talking so lightly.
"I don't want you to lie."
She took offense:
"First of all, I never lie…. And then, I cannot very well tell her…."
He asked her half in jest, half in earnest:
"Why not?"
She laughed, shrugged, and said that he was coarse and ill-bred, and that she had already asked him not to use the Du to her.