"I love you," she replied very intensely.
"I daresay, but I'm not in love with you, Mrs. Cream, and I never will be. I don't like you. I like your wee man, but I don't like you. I think you're an awful humbug of a woman!..."
Mrs. Cream stood still as if she had been suddenly paralysed.
"You don't like me!..." she said at last, utterly incredulous.
"No, I don't."
"Oh!"
She raised her hands, and for a few moments he imagined that she was about to strike him. Then she dropped them to her side again and laughed.
"I don't know whether to hug you or slap you," she said. "You impudent brat!"
"I wouldn't advise you to do either the one or the other," he answered.
She came nearer to him, and laid her hand on his sleeve.