He was amazed at Willits's outburst.
"You mean to contradict Miss Kate! Are you crazy, Willits ?" "No, I am entirely sane," he retorted, an ugly ring in his voice.
Everybody had ceased talking now.

Good-natured disputes over the young girls were not uncommon among the young men, but this one seemed to have an ominous sound.

Colonel Rutter evidently thought so, for he had now risen from his seat and was crossing the room to where Harry and the group stood.
"Well, you neither act nor talk as if you were sane," rejoined Harry in cold, incisive tones, inching his way nearer Kate, as if to be the better prepared to defend her.
Willits's lip curled.

"I am not beholden to you, sir, for my conduct, although I can be later on for my words.

Let me see your dancing-card, Miss Kate," and he caught it from her unresisting hand.