Mrs.Dawes smiled brightly as she looked across the country.
"I feel better," she said.
"Thank you," he replied.

"Great compliment!" "Oh, my brother!" she laughed.
"H'm! that's snatching back with the left hand what you gave with the right, and no mistake," he said.
She laughed in amusement at him.
"But what was the matter with you ?" he asked.

"I know you were brooding something special.

I can see the stamp of it on your face yet." "I think I will not tell you," she said.
"All right, hug it," he answered.
She flushed and bit her lip.
"No," she said, "it was the girls." "What about 'em ?" Paul asked.
"They have been plotting something for a week now, and to-day they seem particularly full of it.

All alike; they insult me with their secrecy." "Do they ?" he asked in concern.
"I should not mind," she went on, in the metallic, angry tone, "if they did not thrust it into my face--the fact that they have a secret." "Just like women," said he.
"It is hateful, their mean gloating," she said intensely.
Paul was silent.