‘Well, I have no right to make observations—your actions are not subject to my surveillance; you float above my plane,’ said the young man with some bitterness. ‘But to speak plainly, surely he—kissed you?’
‘No,’ she said. ‘He only kissed the air in front of me—ever so far off.’
‘Was it six inches off?’
‘No, not six inches.’
‘Nor three.’
‘It was quite one,’ she said with an ingenuous air.
‘I don’t call that very far.’
‘A miss is as good as a mile, says the time-honoured proverb; and it is not for us modern mortals to question its truth.’
‘How can you be so off-hand?’ broke out Somerset. ‘I love you wildly and desperately, Paula, and you know it well!’
‘I have never denied knowing it,’ she said softly.