UNDERSTANDING
“What is it, Elice? You’re transparent as spring water. Out with it.”
“Out with what, Steve?”
“The secret information of vital importance that you’re holding back with an effort for a favorable moment to deliver. The present isn’t particularly dramatic, I’ll admit, but it’s the best circumstances permit.”
“You’re simply absurd, Steve; more so than usual.”
“No, merely ordinarily observant. I’ve known you some time, and the symptoms are infallible. When you get that absent, beyond-earth look in your eyes, and sit twisting around and around that mammoth diamond ring your uncle gave you on your sixteenth birthday—Come, I’m impatient from the toes up. Who is engaged now?”
“No one, so far as I know.”
“Married, then; don’t try to fool me.”
“Who told you, Steve Armstrong?” 36
“No one.” The accompanying laugh was positively boyish. “I knew it was one or the other. Come, ’fess up. I’ll be good, honest.”