"She looks well in anything," Eric answered. It was dangerous to praise her even to her own cousin lest one more voice should rise to proclaim that he was in love with her.
"You're a great friend of hers, aren't you?" Amy asked. "Some one told me at tea to-day——"
Eric became rigid, and she stopped.
"Yes?"
"My dear Mr. Lane, you don't even know what I was going to say!"
"I think I do."
"Then you aren't very complimentary to Babs."
"I feel a certain responsibility towards her."
"You mustn't mind too much what people say.… You know George Oakleigh? Well, in the dark ages, when I came out, he and I were very great friends; we always have been; I've known him all my life, and his cousin married my poor brother.… Need I say that quite a number of people …? If they'd troubled to think for a moment, they might have remembered that I was a Catholic, but a little thing like that never occurs to them.… D'you mind my talking to you like this?" she asked with a smile that sweetened the abruptness of her tone. "When I introduced the subject, you froze up so——"
"Can't you understand?" he interrupted. "I'm very fond indeed of Barbara, but if people talk like this …"