She nodded. “Now, hear my version: ‘I am a woman; nothing that touches my man is alien to my interests.’”
He laughed. But there was a note of gratitude in his voice, almost humble, as he said: “You’re the only woman in the world, Io, who can quote the classics and not seem a prig.”
“That’s because I’m beautiful,” she retorted impudently. “Tell me I’m beautiful, Ban!”
“You’re the loveliest witch in the world,” he cried.
“So much for flattery. Now—politics.”
He recounted the Laird charges.
“No; that wasn’t fair,” she agreed. “It was most unfair. But I don’t believe Bob Laird knew the whole story. Did you ask him?”
“Ask him? I certainly did not. You don’t understand much about politics, dearest.”
“I was thinking of it from the point of view of the newspaper. If you’re going to answer him in The Patriot, I should think you’d want to know just what his basis was. Besides, if he’s wrong, I believe he’d take it back.”
“After all the damage has been done. He won’t get the chance.” Banneker’s jaw set firm.