How much more easily a woman recovers her poise than a man, especially when that man gives himself over as tamely as I did!
"Was it your letter he was seeking?" I cried, all eagerness and excitement as this one sane thought entered my head.
"Did he tell you that there was a letter in it?"—scornfully.
"Yes,"—guiltily. Heaven only knows why I should have had any sense of guilt.
"Give it to me at once,"—imperatively.
"The hat or the letter?" Truly, I did not know what I was about. Only one thing was plain to my confused mind, and that was the knowledge that I wanted to put my arms around her and carry her far, far away from Toddy-One-Boy.
"Are you mad, to anger me in this fashion?" she said, balling her little gloved hands wrathfully. Had there been real lightning in her eyes I'd have been dead this long while. "Do you dare believe that I knew you lived in this apartment?"
"I ... haven't the hat."
"You dared to search it?"—drawing herself up to a supreme height, which was something less than five-feet-two.
I became angry, and somehow found myself.