"If you knew how I feel inside you'd think I had a right."
The girl relented a little. "You know as well as I do that Mr. Covington comes here simply to help me in my business education."
"Business fiddlesticks!" he interrupted, crossly. "You're not engaged to him yet, are you?"
There was so pathetic a tone of entreaty in Allen's voice that Alice could not deny herself the pleasure of being mischievous.
"Not to him alone," she answered, demurely.
"What do you mean?" Allen demanded, now thoroughly alarmed.
"Don't you think it is better for a girl to make a number of men comparatively happy by being engaged to them than one man supremely miserable by marrying him?"
He looked at her aghast. "Who are some of the others?" he asked, with despair written on every feature. "Is Joe Whitney one of them?"
"Joe Whitney!" Alice laughed merrily. "Mercy, no! Joe is entirely without resources. If it wasn't for his family troubles, I shouldn't know what in the world to talk to him about."
Allen began to be suspicious. The girl's manner was far too flippant to be genuine, but he would not for the world give her the satisfaction of knowing that she had worried him.