"I don't consider my friend, Mr. Le Beau, an—er—animal," said Gwendolen, all the more stiffly that her statement was not quite true.
"I beg your pardon," said her companion, meekly, and relapsed into careful silence.
Gwendolen fidgeted. This did not suit her mood at all. She wanted to quarrel. "Yuki and Pierre are frantically in love, poor things! But of course an incipient diplomat doesn't take into consideration anything so trivial as—love."
Dodge smiled into her petulant eyes, a sort of elder-brother smile that stung her. "If I am the incipient referred to, you have missed your mark."
"You pretend to be Pierre's friend, but you never did like him."
"When have I pretended?"
"You are jealous because he is so good-looking. All men are that way."
"Aren't girls sometimes that way too?" asked he, with elaborate innocence.
The shot told. She reddened angrily. "You are very disagreeable this morning, Mr. Dodge."
Again fell silence.